Australians have hung on to the lockdown pets they adopted in record numbers during the pandemic, with the number of animal surrenders to the RSPCA dropping or stabilising across every state despite the end of lockdowns.

There is no national figure for how many animals have been adopted over the past two years, but according to pre-COVID-19 figures quoted by the RSPCA, Australians have about 29 million pets and spent $13 billion on them in 2019.