Police impounded twice as many dogs following biting incidents last year compared to the year before, with experts blaming the increased demand for pets during the Covid pandemic.

In 2023 police had to intervene 164 times compared to just 80 times in 2022, according to figures requested by the ANP press agency.

During the coronavirus crisis, many people wanted to alleviate the boredom and stress of sitting at home by getting a pet. Dogs were particularly popular because they had to be walked, giving the owner an excuse to leave the house during lockdown.

“Regular dog breeders couldn’t meet the demand and commercial breeders stepped in with inbred dogs and strays from other countries,” one Utrecht veterinarian told ANP.

The behavioural problems were also caused by the fact that puppies grew up in isolation without coming into contact with other dogs or people, he said.

Impounded dogs are taken to a secret location where veterinary experts from the University of Utrecht decide if the animal is likely to bite again or the risk can be limited by training or muzzling.

Neglect and other forms of abuse are still the main reasons dogs are impounded. In the first eight months of this year alone some 535 dogs were impounded, over five times as many as in the whole of 2018.

Between one and 1.5 million people became pet owners in the Netherlands during the coronavirus pandemic but many animals have been dumped since, animal welfare organisation Sophia Vereeniging found in 2021.

Many corona pets, as the animal welfare organisation has dubbed them, have been abandoned in the wild.