Albury Wodonga Animal Rescue experiencing influx of surrenders

Instead, it was another owner wanting her already overcrowded Albury Wodonga Animal Rescue to take their pet on short notice.

"I had someone ring on Christmas Day saying 'if you don't come now I'll let the dog loose because I'm having a party and people are coming over'," Miss Bloomfield said.

While many people were picking out kittens and puppies to give as gifts, others were surrendering or dumping last year's ill-thought presents at rescues across the region.

"We've already had some surrendered this year because their owners can't afford boarding or have visitors coming to stay," she said.

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Miss Bloomfield said basically every rescue in the Border region was already struggling as they dealt with an influx of abandoned cats and dogs.

"We're full to the brim, we've had to turn away people away," she said.

"I feel very sorry for the animals surrendered.

"You do try to talk people out of it, to offer them solutions.

"I feel terrible for the pets, they don't know what's going on and they deserve so much better."

Miss Bloomfield said it was heartbreaking to see animals given up simply because they were inconvenient, or their owner hadn't thought through the realities of having a pet. Anyone who was looking to get a pet, she said, needed to be willing to commit to the cat or dog for life.

"People have some really silly reasons," she said.

"When you take on an animal you should be taking them on for life and you need to organise your life with them included."

Ms Bloomfield said pets should never be given to others as gifts, except by parents who were giving them to their own children.

"It's OK if you are buying for your children who live with you, but don't buy anyone an animal as a gift without them seeing and interacting with the dog or cat," she said.

"You're buying someone something living that they may not want and next thing you know it's being surrendered."