Charity pleads with owners not to dump their pets

Jersey's animal charity is asking pet owners to bring them to its shelter rather than abandon them outdoors after a trio of goldfish were found dumped in a pond without food.

The Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JSPCA) said it was not the first time this month a member of the public had found pets left outside to fend for themselves after a group of guinea pigs were found on the north coast.

The JSPCA said the three goldfish were found in an unsuitable pond near La Rue a Don in Grouville and asked its owners to contact them.

Head of service delivery Katie Kay said a member of the public spotted the fish and said they looked "like they shouldn't be there".

She said: "The pond wasn't set up for life - we sent our driver out to assess the situation, confirmed that there was no vegetation, no food source, no real shelter, so it wasn't really appropriate for the fish to be there.

"Goldfish like this would usually be domestic pets, so they would be in fish tanks in people's homes, you wouldn't really expect to see them in a random pond."

Kay said "there was no judgement" from the charity if people's circumstances changed and they needed to give up their pets. But rather than leaving them "in a location where they are not likely to survive" to bring them to the JSPCA.

"We can look to find them a new home, we can make sure that they're looked after and they have the best possible chance of having a good life," she said.

The JSPCA said leaving domestic pets in the outdoors to fend for themselves was dangerous.

Kay said: "There's so many risks for animals in the wild especially if they're not sort of equipped or used to dealing with life in the wild.

"These goldfish in the pond, they had no shelter over the pond so there was a risk that birds could come down, swoop them, take them - they didn't have a food source, so they would have starved eventually."

Regarding the abandoned guinea pigs, Kay said they had still not found an owner or new homes for any of them.

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