ANIMAL rescue NPO, Phoenix Animal Care and Treatment (PACT) is challenging animal lovers to pitch a tent in their garden or home and live in it from 8am until 8pm for their Kennel Challenge on Saturday, 29 August.
The challenge aims to addresses a ‘chain’ of Covid events that has increased the financial strain on PACT, which already has an outstanding vet bill of R250 000.
PACT will take on the challenge at Chris Saunders Park in uMhlanga, where they will spend the day in dog kennels to raise awareness about rescue animals that are stuck in kennels or chained up all their lives.
PACT will also be accepting pet food donations at the park.
They will also have a few animals up for adoption at the park for people to visit.
Also read: More than 70 SPCA pets adopted in July
Participants need to raise a minimum of R2500 during their 12 hour Kennel Challenge by appealing to donors to pay their bail and release them from their ‘prison’.
Prizes are up for grabs and participants are encouraged to upload photos and videos to social media, using the hashtag, #pactkennelchallenge.
PACT founder, Neeri Naidoo said the Covid-19 lockdown has prevented her from hosting the fundraising events that are vital to keep PACT running.
“Not being able to have events to fundraise has put us in a huge predicament. Over and above the existing vet bill we owe, we used to feed 83 animals on a daily basis and now feed 196. That’s only because of Covid-19. We are facing huge pressure. We are short of finance, short of food and short of homes for rescue animals. The Kennel Challenge was the only way I could think of creating awareness around the animals up for adoption and to reduce our vet bill,” she said.
In response to the pandemic, PACT has gone beyond their role of animal rescue to distribute food packs to people as well.
“We used to go out to feed the animals, then we found the people were starving. They literally hadn’t eaten food for days. So we now take on the responsibility of feeding the animals and the families. We have done a couple of hundred hampers,” she said.
Naidoo said the number of abandoned animals has increased due to misinformation about animals spreading the virus.
Also read: Feeding the Furballs need your help
“There is misinformation about how animals transmit the disease. Coronavirus has been around for years and animals have contracted coronavirus. With this specific Covid-19, there has been a dog that contracted it, but not here in South Africa, so there’s been a misunderstanding. Since the news that animals have contracted the virus, people have been abandoning their animals in the most cruel ways,” she said.
She cautioned pet owners to practice good hygiene to avoid infecting their pets.
“Don’t kiss your pets. Wash your hands regularly and use gloves, but right now animals are not carriers of the virus in the country,” she said.
Participants can use a tent, garage, shed, kennels or any confined space to participate in the challenge. To sign up participants need to send PACT a WhatsApp message on 073 005 4275 with a short write up about why they want to take part in the challenge.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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