An alliance of national animal charities has joined forces with FareShare and global corporate donors including Pets at Home, Petplan, Purina Petcare, Lily’s Kitchen, and Mars Petcare to help owners in need to feed their hungry pets in the face of the cost-of-living crisis.

Dogs Trust, RSPCA, Battersea, and Cats Protection are working together with industry body UK Pet Food to secure food from pet food manufacturers, which is then distributed all over the UK through FareShare, the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste.

This initiative has been made possible thanks to Petplan, the UK’s leading pet insurer, covering the cost of distributing food to pets in need.

The alliance will help redistribute pet food to FareShare’s network of 9,500 charities which, as well as providing food banks, also provide wraparound services that help tackle the root causes of poverty, including homelessness shelters, women’s refuge centres, older people’s lunch clubs and after school clubs.

To date, the programme has received 43,621kg of pet food, the equivalent of over 304,000 meals for hungry pets across the UK, who might not otherwise have been fed a proper meal that day.

Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the RSPCA, said: “Sadly, we know the cost of living crisis is a real worry for pet owners.

“We are so grateful to the suppliers currently on board with us and the FareShare network but to help reach even more struggling pet owners we really need more manufacturers to come on board and help more animals and owners through these extremely tough times.”

Nicole Paley, deputy chief executive of UK Pet Food, added: “Our members are responsible for feeding 90% of the nation’s pets, so we have been delighted that many have signed up to the scheme and donated pet food for those in need.”