At Absolute Pets, we are not only passionate about helping our customers’ pets live a happy and healthy life, but also those pets who don’t yet have a family to call their own. As part of our ongoing commitment to be the uncompromising champion of all pets and support our surrounding communities, we host and partake in several initiatives to aid local animal welfare.
For those of you who are particularly passionate about helping animals in need, this article is for you. We’ve put together a snapshot of what we’ve been up to and the various ways in which we are helping many animal welfare organisations around the country. We hope it provides some comfort knowing that the brand you choose to support when shopping for your pets, is putting a real effort into supporting other pets in need.
Pet food donations
Pet food donations are probably the most common request we receive from local animal welfare organisations. Throughout the year, we donate a significant amount of pet food to various registered organisations that have requested assistance.
We keep a running list of those that have reached out to us, and we work our way through the list in an effort to eventually get to as many organisations as we can, to help as many pets as we can.
Last year alone, we donated 4168kgs of pet food to 63 different organisations around South Africa.
In addition, we also host ‘Double-up donation’ drives at several of our smaller events hosted by our store teams. The aim is to involve the community and so we invite customers to purchase food for the purpose of donating to a local organisation, with a commitment from us to match their donations in kg’s. This means doubling the amount of food that the organisation receives. A single one of these events has raised up to 400kg’s in pet food in one weekend alone.
Adoption days
Animal welfare organisations are constantly hard at work, promoting pet adoption and creating awareness for pets looking for homes. To help with this initiative, each month we team up with local organisations in our surrounding communities and invite them to co-host adoption days with us, at the shopping centres where our stores are based. There have been many successful adoptions, as a result of the awareness and introductions that come from these events. It also gives these organisations an opportunity to interact directly with community members and educate them on other ways they can support, if they cannot adopt.
Fundraising community events
Of course, the biggest need of all is funds. Many welfare organisations have hefty vet bills from the many procedures, treatments and medicines they’ve arranged (including basic preventative treatments, like tick and flea and deworming treatments), in order to save the lives of the pets they’ve rescued.
An effective way to raise funds is through community pet events. Every year, Absolute Pets either host or sponsor at least 2 big community fundraising events.
In the Western Cape, Absolute Pets has teamed up with well-known organisation, Cape of Good Hope SPCA, for the much-loved Woefie Wandel dog walk and pet fair. Hundreds of community members attend and as much as R150 000 has been raised at this event.
In Kwa-Zulu Natal, we host our own dog walk event, Paws on the Promenade, in Umhlanga. Last year was our 6th event, and funds from these events go to Feeding the Furballs and Project Dog in Durban.
In Gauteng we have hosted our own Walk for Paws dog walk and pet fair event in Nelspruit and Johannesburg, with Nelspruit SPCA and AACL as the beneficiaries.
These events have also provided a great opportunity for pet owners in the community to come together and spend some quality time with their pets and other fellow pet lovers, all while helping a good cause.
Fundraising competitions
Competitions are a great way to include pet owners and provide a platform for them to help raise funds while celebrating their own companions. StarPet South Africa is a fantastic monthly photo competition designed to do just that, and Absolute Pets is proud to be the main prize sponsor. Pet parents can showcase their favourite pic of their beloved pets for a chance to win their share of R22,500, including R17,000 in Absolute Pets vouchers.
Funds are generated through voting and 50% of the profits generated from the public votes go directly to an animal welfare organisation. Each month a different organization is chosen (by the previous month’s winner) to receive the funds. To date, this competition has generated over half a million rand for 48 organisations and up to R43,000 in one competition alone.
Mandela Day initiatives
Mandela Day is an incredible platform for promoting charitable causes and encouraging people to ‘make a difference’. At Absolute Pets we’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing an active part in the Mandela Day annual initiatives and have, of course, dedicated our efforts to animal welfare.
Each year we’ve supported in different ways and run different campaigns ranging from donation drives for various pet supplies hosted in our stores, to customers adding cash donations to purchases where we match the value with pet food donations. Our favourite campaign, however, is where our teams took the day to visit various organisations in their community and lend a helping hand. From building kennels to painting the premises, feeding and walking the animals or simply just spending time with them, they got stuck in and thoroughly enjoyed their time there.
Join us in making a real difference
As you can see, there are many ways to support animal welfare and at Absolute Pets we are extremely passionate about continuing our drive to make a difference. We invite all our customers and fellow pet lovers to find a way to get involved, no matter how small or big:
- Consider adopting a pet.
- Volunteer your time at an animal shelter.
- Donate – food, supplies or cash. Every little bit adds up.
- Participate in a fundraising event or competition
- Spread Awareness - use your platforms and networks to help raise awareness.
If you’d like to find out more about what we do or how you can join us in our initiatives, stay tuned to our social pages or email us on info@absolutepets.com.