A NATIONAL animal charity has promised to provide emergency support to thousands of animals in need during the coronavirus outbreak.

The RSPCA is providing an emergency-only service to animals through the coronavirus crisis in the wake of Government advice.

The animal charity which has a team of frontline officers, 17 animals centres, four wildlife centres and four animal hospitals across England and Wales, has reassured animal lovers they will still be dealing with emergency cases.

Chief executive, Chris Sherwood, said: “Despite most of the country staying at home there are still animals which need our help and I’m so incredibly thankful for frontline officers helping animals in emergency situations, our hospital workers for providing emergency treatment and our centre staff and volunteers who are giving love and affection to the hundreds of animals in our care.

“We’ve taken steps to make sure that we are dealing with emergency cases only so we can play our part in stopping the spread of this virus and safeguard our staff and volunteers.

“We rely on the public’s help and we would ask them to only call our helpline in an emergency and visit our website for all other enquiries.”

The RSPCA has a team of frontline officers working around the clock across England and Wales to deal with emergency-only cases.

Officers will be wearing protective clothing, regularly handwashing before and after handling animals, avoiding entering premises and asking people to bring animals to the door where appropriate and keeping their vans clean.

The RSPCA is asking people to only call in the event of an emergency, and is pleading that anyone who does call is patient, as despite contingency planning, the charity has fewer people available to answer calls.

Each year the RSPCA answers more than a million calls from the public concerned about animals.

The RSPCA has 17 nationally-run animal centres.

These are now closed to the public and we have paused rehoming and fostering and will resume as soon as it is safe.

Staff and volunteers will be focusing on giving love and attention to the hundreds of animals in their care.

There are more than 150 RSPCA branches, registered charities in their own right, which are part of the RSPCA family running vital clinics, rehoming centres and charity shops.

Centres and shops have closed to the public.

Check the websites, social media channels for details of any emergency services they may be operating.

Chris added: “We know these are really worrying times for everyone and I hope hearing that we are still helping animals is a little piece of good news.

“We know many people will be financially worse off as a result of this crisis but if anyone is in a position to make a donation to help our services continue we would really appreciate it.”