The cost-of-living crisis is so severe for some that the choice is to feed themselves or their pets.
Others have been forced to make the heartbreaking decision to put their animals into care.
Now pet food banks aim to help owners as they face a record squeeze on household finances.
Several national charities including the Salvation Army and Blue Cross are to expand their networks of food banks which provide wet and dry food for animals. The aim is to help owners be able to keep their pets and so limit the number of animals, particularly cats and dogs, that end up in rescue centres.
It follows an increase in pets being handed to charities by distressed owners under financial pressure. The RSPCA is among those reporting a rise in the number of abandoned animals.
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In the year to January, prices rose by 5.5 per cent on average and the Bank of England has warned that inflation could rise above 7 per cent this year. Many families are braced for further increases to bills next month when the energy price cap is raised and National Insurance contributions rise.
Lindsay Fyffe-Jardine, chief executive of the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home in Craigentinny, said that her staff received daily phone calls from distressed pet owners who could not afford to look after their animals.
The charity operated one food bank in early 2020, before the pandemic, and now runs 52. It is working alongside standard food banks, which help feed people who are in crisis, to deliver pet food, bowls and blankets across Scotland, including Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling and the Borders.
It is estimated that the charity provides 10,000 meals a month, helped by an £87,000 donation from Pawthereum, a community-run charity cryptocurrency project, and companies such as Amazon, which has given food it has been unable to sell.
Blue Cross, the national animal charity, also hopes to establish a network of pet food banks across the country. It said the pandemic had damaged family finances, with many pet owners finding themselves on a reduced income, on furlough or having lost their job completely.
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It aims to expand its operations by supporting volunteers to source pet food and share it with organisations that help vulnerable people and their pets.
Fyffe-Jardine said: “People are choosing to feed their pets over themselves. If they have a limited amount of money, they are choosing to cook for their cat or dog before them- selves. We have people on a daily basis, phoning us with heartbreaking stories of their difficult situation and the choices they are being forced to make. It is awful, but I am proud of what we are doing.”
She added: “For many people, their pet is part of their family, but sometimes things can get complicated and life becomes very difficult.
“So many people have needed to access support over the past few years after they felt they were unable to care for their pet.”
Lorraine Duncan, who works for the Salvation Army in Edinburgh, said requests for pet food increased while she was working at human food banks during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
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“One of the things I noticed in lockdown was more and more people asking for pet food,” she said. “This does not come as standard in a food parcel, which contains three days worth of basic food and snacks.
“We also noticed that people would not accept homeless accommodation unless they could take their pet with them. In lockdown, often the only company some people had was their pet.”
