Animal charity RSPCA is providing an emergency-only service to animals during the coronavirus crisis.

It has a team of frontline officers, 17 animal centres, four wildlife centres and four animal hospitals across England and Wales. 

All the animal centres have now closed to the public with rehoming and fostering being paused until it is safe to do so. 

The four hospitals are working to help emergency cases and the wildlife centres are still working but are not open to the public. 

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 charity also asks that the 24-hour hotline is only used in emergencies.