Sydney sets up soup kitchens for homeless pets

The RSPCA Living Ruff programme will feed the pets of Sydney's homeless. Photo / Thinkstock

Homeless people's pets are set to get a leg up with soup kitchens across Sydney distributing pet food.

The RSPCA Living Ruff programme, which kicked off yesterday, will see the pets of homeless people fed at various Exodus Foundation shelters across the city.

"Homeless people will often go without food themselves in order to ensure their pet is fed," RSPCA spokeswoman Fiona Millhouse said in a release yesterday.

"We believe both pets and people should have easy access to food ... hopefully [this programme] will ensure that neither pet nor owner goes hungry."

Exodus Foundation founder Reverend Bill Crews said pets are often the only stable attachments homeless people have.

"The more homeless people know there are services available designed to look after their pets, the more secure they'll feel in what is, for them, an insecure, scary world," he said.

The RSPCA is seeking to expand the programme to include emergency boarding, foster care and access to vets among other services.

- AAP