THE number of animals abandoned in Essex over the festive period dropped by more than half this year.
This year the RSPCA rescued hundreds of animals, from guinea pigs chinchillas, cats and dogs, and ferrets, which were abandoned during Christmas.
Between Christmas Eve 2013 to January 7, 2014, eight animals were abandoned in Essex, however over the same period this year only three had to be rescued by the charity.
Across the county a total of 211 abandoned animals were rescued by the RSPCA in the two weeks between Christmas Eve and January 7.
However, this was down by nearly 50 per cent compared to the 419 animals rescued during the same period in 2010/11.
Chief inspector Dermot Murphy said he was pleased to see the number of abandoned animals fall by such a significant amount.
He said: "A drop in abandonments is an encouraging sign and hopefully it shows that pet owners across England and Wales are taking more responsibility for their animals, even when times might be tough or circumstances change.
"We have been persisting with the message that abandoning animals is not acceptable for many years, so it is heartening to see that it seems to be sinking in even though we still rescued more than 11,000 abandoned animals in total during 2014.
"The festive fortnight has still proven to be a busy time. Our teams on the frontline have been working day and night to help injured, trapped and neglected animals and will continue to do so throughout the coming year.
"Hopefully those animals that needed our help in recent weeks will enjoy a more settled Christmas next time around."
