AN alarming increase in pets being dumped has been condemned by animal lovers.
A sharp rise in the number of abandoned animals – often mistreated – has been reported by animal welfare charity RSPCA.
Some of Gloucestershire's animal havens are feeling the pressure of the extra demand.
Emma Barrett, from Teckels Animal Sanctuary, at Whitminster, said: "It's reached crisis point.
"Quite often we just don't have enough room for them all.
"I had a woman ring the other day threatening to put her cat in a box weighed down with brick and drown her in the river if we didn't take her in. But if we are full, we are full. It's very difficult."
At New Start Cat Rescue in Newent, they have been rehoming pets dumped around the area.
Maggie was found by a vet outside his house in a box and had been badly burnt. She has now found a loving home.
Holly, a ginger cat, was found by the charity living in a skip.
"She hadn't been spayed so had given birth to litters of kittens in the skip as well. She had a really bad eye infection to the point where the eye was rotting inside her head so she had to have it removed," they said.
In Stroud last year, for example, 169 stray dogs were seized by animal welfare officers from the district council. But 44 of them were not claimed back by their owners and were left to Teckels to find a new home.
A further two were put down because of severe ill health.
Animal welfare officer at Stroud District Council Alexandra Davies said: "An alarming issue on the rise is people attempting to hand their own dogs over as strays to avoid handing them in at a rescue where they would be expected to offer a donation for its upkeep.
"We find ourselves becoming increasingly suspicious and interrogating anyone we collect a stray from.
"We appear to becoming a 'throw away' society.
"Taking on an animal is a massive, and costly, responsibility and is not a decision that should be made on a whim.
"I have taken calls from some people who want to re home their dogs who feel its appropriate to threaten to abandon their animal if we don't take it off them.
"Increasingly the attitude, from a small section of dog owners who don't want their pets any longer and are being told the rescue centres are full, seems to be 'its not my problem, what are you going to do about it'.
"It's becoming a real issue."
