Following the abandonment of four puppies on the side of a Fermanagh road, an animal sanctuary has said there has been a significant increase in the number of dogs being surrendered or abandoned since Covid restrictions have been lifted.

Bright Eyes Animal Sanctuary in Enniskillen took in the five week old puppies after they were found on the Sligo Road last week by a member of the public.

The sanctuary’s Fundraising Manager, Victoria Ellingsen said the pups were very malnourished, full of worms and very cold.

Despite being at full capacity, Victoria is imploring dog owners who find themselves thinking to give up their dogs to get in touch to see how they can help.

“Yes we are very full, but when it comes to cases like that we wish people would contact us because these pups were in awful condition and it is very cruel to do that and we are here for emergency cases,” she said.

“Somebody has dumped them point blank and left them to fend for themselves and they would have died.

“They have been with us just under a week and they have been to the vet and been wormed and are being fed four times a day and now they are happy little puppies but they weren’t happy puppies a week ago, it was just awful.”

Victoria has been a trustee of Bright Eyes for eight years and while she has seen the sanctuary as busy before they cannot keep up with the amount of people wanting to surrender their dogs.

She believes there are a number of factors playing into this as life returns to some sort of normality following the Covid pandemic.

“We are incredibly busy at the moment. We are totally full.

“Everybody that gets in touch with us, their dogs are about 6-10 months old and they’ve grown too big and they are too boisterous,” Victoria explained adding that they are getting a lot of enquiries from Belfast and the Republic of Ireland.

“This all falls down to people getting dogs during Covid - wanting the dog to walk, for company when working from home.

“We are seeing a lot of young dogs that were got about a year ago and now people just don’t have time for them anymore.”

But there are other factors said Victoria: “What we have also noticed a lot lately is people being made homeless and not being able to keep their dogs.

“What we have seen since Christmas is four or five cases of people being made homeless and then got emergency accommodation and they haven’t been allowed to take their pets

“I guess it’s coming now to the point where people are struggling for money and dogs are a massive expense.”

As well as the four puppies, Bright Eyes has taken in a Lurcher which appeared to have been attacked by other dogs and a Staffie which was very thin with skin problems and attempt had been made to crop its ears and tail.

“Dogs depend on people to look after them and not just dump them.

“It is a really cruel way to leave pups. They would have died but they are now with us and we hope we can get them new homes,” Victoria added.