The emergency flood response teams of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) have been placed on standby as flood warnings issued.
More than 120 flood warnings and alerts have been issued across England – the majority across southern England.
The UK government’s flood information service has issued flood warnings at the second highest level of warning, which advises people to act to move family and pets to safety, across Dorset, East Sussex, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Surrey and West Sussex.
Flood alerts have been issued across the south west and south east, as well as parts of London, the Midlands and north east.
The charity placed its water rescue teams on standby after flood state one was declared by the organisation’s response managers on last night (Wednesday, November 16), running until at least tomorrow evening (Friday, November 18).
The RSPCA has had six calls relating to flooding as of lunchtime today (Thursday, November 17).
The RSPCA is part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) National Flood Response Team and it has approximately 60 specially-trained officers and emergency rescue boats for water rescues.
Inspector Jason Finch, who is the charity’s national water rescue coordinator, said: “This decision is made based on local conditions, the safety of our officers and predictions on how the weather and water levels could impact animals in local areas. It’s also based on the number of emergency calls that are coming into our hotline.
“The main concerns we are seeing at the moment are coming from members of the public who have seen horses or livestock in flooded fields.
“While we’ve not launched any rescues yet, we are urging pet owners and farmers to act now to ensure the safety of their animals.
“Make sure you have a plan so that you know how to get your animals out of danger if the worst was to happen and you found yourself caught up in flooding.”
Finch warned that floodwater can rise quickly, so if there is a flood warning in the area he urges people to put a plan into action early.
“Don’t put your own life or another’s life in danger to attempt an animal rescue and call us for help in an emergency,” he said.
