ANIMAL welfare officers responded to thousands of cases of animals in need in Glasgow in the first half of this year.

Every minute and a half the organisation received a call for help across Scotland with Glasogw the second busiest area in the country.

New data from the Scottish SPCA has shows 3,113 incidents in the city out of a total of more than 36,000 across Scotland.

Lockdown forced the closure of all nine Scottish SPCA animal rescue and rehoming centres across Scotland which meant animals were arriving at the centres without being rehomed.

SSPCA said this put immense pressure on their teams and resources.

To cope the service set up an emergency foster scheme which saw over 260 animals who were ready to be rehomed go out on foster. More than 70 were then permanently rehomed by fosterers.

The SSPCA has been able to rehome fewer animals this year so far because of lockdown but still has managed to rehome almost 1800 animals in need of new owners.

Despite the closure, the Scottish SPCA has rehomed 1,796 animals in the first six months of the year. This is down by 23% from 2,339 in 2019.

Kirsteen Campbell, Scottish SPCA chief executive, said: “Our whole team has worked so hard through this unprecedented crisis, and the passion and dedication they have displayed all the way through has been truly inspirational.

“Even during lockdown, we were still averaging a call about an animal in need every 90 seconds, which shows the scale of demand there was for our services.

“As Scotland’s animal champions, we have a duty to continue to do our job under any circumstances to make sure pets, wildlife, farm animals and people get the help they need. Thank you so much to our partners and the public for such great support.”

Almost 10% of all jobs taken on by Scotland’s animal welfare charity were in Glasgow. The Society’s animal rescue officers and inspectors responded to 3,113 reports in the area, from a total of 36,299 across Scotland. Fife had 3,226 incidents and Edinburgh followed Glasgow with 2,761 jobs attended.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish SPCA reported an 8% drop in reports of animals in need nationwide compared to the first six months of 2019.

In the first half of 2020 there was 119,564 calls to the charity’s animal helpline - a 10% drop from 133,047 on the previous period in 2019.

The Society’s National Wildlife Rescue Centre did not close its doors and continued to take in injured, sick or orphaned wild animals. Admissions in the first half of this year are down 47% from the same period in 2019. 3,377 animals arrived at the centre in Clackmannanshire compared to 5,139 in the previous year. The centre has been especially busy since lockdown eased in May, with almost 1,000 animals on-site at a given time.