Local SPCA regards Dan Spengler a legend
Anonymous from Boksburg writes:
I would like to state that I am truly disgusted and disappointed with the SPCA. There is an old man that is always in the Boksburg area. He wears a mask and holds a sign stating he is collecting any donations for the SPCA and the worst part is he holds a toy gun.
He stands and points the “toy” at motorists so as to give the impression that he is “holding them up” or “hijacking them”.
This may seem funny to some people and whoever came up with the idea at the SPCA.
However, those of us who have been unlucky enough to have been either held up, smash-and-grabbed, houses broken into, hijacked or robbed do not find this means of trying to bring in funds to support the SPCA funny. It’s disgusting and disrespectful to say the least.
I for one am nervous each time I get to a stop sign or a red robot or any shopping centre for that matter.
Yet here the SPCA is joking about the cruel reality we live with each day. The man that is currently doing this, firstly, should not be standing for hours in the heat doing this, as he seems to be elderly.
The way he is doing it should come to a stop, immediately. It makes members of the public, like myself and others, frown upon the SPCA that has to stoop to this level to get funds in.
SPCA’s response
It is often quite easy to look upon someone in a negative way based on one’s perception of what a person ‘looks like’.
It gives us all at the Boksburg SPCA great pleasure in this instance, to give you some background about Dan Spengler, the elderly gent who, dressed in his ‘cowboy outfit’, you see collecting at various intersections for the Boksburg SPCA.
Dan and his late wife Colleen, passionate animal lovers and lifetime supporters of the Boksburg SPCA, voluntarily started this project in 2007, initially looking after 193 of our collection tins in local shops and businesses.
A year or so later, of their own accord, Dan and Colleen incorporated street collections into their fund-raising ‘routine’ as an additional source of income for our society.
Dan, not the Boksburg SPCA, decided all those years ago to wear the cowboy outfit as a means to stand out and be noticed. Dan has worn this outfit while street collecting for more than 10 years.
Anonymous, your letter is the first complaint Boksburg SPCA has ever received in regard to his cowboy outfit. It is obvious to anyone passing him on the street that he is elderly and poses no threat to passing motorists.
The most common question the Boksburg SPCA receive from the public is, “There is a gent collecting on behalf of the Boksburg SPCA, dressed as a cowboy – is he legitimate?”
Recently we posted a photo of Dan on our FB page – the many, many comments posted were all so positive in regard to his unwavering dedication, not one referenced his ‘cowboy outfit’.
Dan is a legend and a Boksburg SPCA superhero. With the generous support of our wider Boksburg community who put their change into our shop tins and the motorists who support Dan on the street, he has over the past 12 years collected a phenomenal amount of money for the Boksburg SPCA.
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