Peta McRae runs the rescue and said they simply have no room left for cats or dogs to be surrendered.

"I just can't take surrenders because I've got nowhere to put them, it's just a bit out of hand," she said.

"I like to get them out of the pound because they're usually on deathrow."

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The animal rescuer said there were numerous reasons why people were surrendering their pets, including issues with housing.

"COVID has made a difference but I think people buying houses has made the biggest difference, kicking people out of rentals and they have to surrender their dogs," she said.

"We had one guy who had to surrender two German shepherds that he had in a unit because the neighbours were complaining.

"The real estate told him it's either you or the dogs so he had no choice.

"Some of the kennels are getting dogs abandoned there, because people drop them off and they just don't come and get them."

Shirley Giles also works at the rescue and said some people needed to surrender their pets because of other unfortunate circumstances as well.

"We've had domestic violence cases where they need to surrender their dogs or cats to get them out of the situation," she said.

"The people come in with their cats or their dogs and they're really upset and you take them in because you know that they're desperate."

But Mrs Giles said that sadly, there were also those people who were abandoning their pets because they weren't prepared for the realities of pet ownership.

"There were some people who bought a poodle x chihuahua and they couldn't deal with it so we had to buy it off them, because if you don't where is that dog going to end up?" she said.

"People just buying dogs and they can't deal with them and they haven't done anything with them, so the dogs come in and they're total nutters.

"You can tell those people that got dogs during lockdown because the dogs are either all over the place or they're fat because they've never walked them."

Mrs Giles said it had taken its toll on the staff, particularly in one case where a litter of four kittens were brought in at only one week old, with three of them dying.

The pet rescuer said that people were also often less than truthful when surrendering their pets.

"People lie to you, saying their dogs are good with other dogs or with kids," she said.

"Before you know it you've got an issue where it jumps fences or it's attacking other dogs."