Inaugural kennel fund-raiser a huge success

BEATING everybody’s expectations, the much-anticipated ‘Night in the life of a rescue animal’ initiative raised an imp[ressive R134 000, with funds still coming in.

Organised by Shirley Davidson of Magic Moments, the event, which saw registered teams locked up in a dog kennel for 12 hours, served as a fund-raising event for the Richards Bay SPCA.

Originally scheduled for earlier in November, the event was postponed owing to the weather and held last Friday.

The evening was enjoyed by the teams and the public who were treated to a dog trick show by the Empangeni Dog Club’s Carmen Oosthuizen and her dog Mystique.

Mainly Coffee was present to keep the public ‘caffeinated’.

ALSO READ: GALLERY: ‘Night in the life of a rescue animal’ SPCA fund-raiser a massive success

All proceeds will go to the SPCA.

MC Keith Eaton of Kinetic Energy kept everybody in high spirits, even when the weather threatened to turn.

The amount and goods raised, which included a full store of dog and cat food, will go a long way to settling the NPO’s outstanding vets bills and going towards staff salaries.

Unable to contain their emotions, SPCA Chairperson Sarel Small and Vice Chairperson Elizabeth Cordiglia thanked the public for their overwhelming support.

‘This means we can settle our debts and pay our staff salaries – something we did not think we would be able to do this month,’ said Small.

To avoid running up high vet bills in the future, the Bay SPCA is working towards setting up its own on-premises theatre in which the State Vet could carry out sterilisations and necessary veterinary work.

A building on the premises has been identified for the theatre and the SPCA has access to second-hand theatre equipment, but more funds are required to get it up and running.

‘Our own theatre would go a long way to helping us be more sustainable and carry out our work without over-spending.’

All the region’s SPCAs – Empangeni, eShowe and Richards Bay – find themselves in the same situation, not knowing from month to month how they will feed the animals in their care or pay staff salaries.

Despite the City of uMhlathuze’s promises earlier this year to pay a monthly amount of R60 000 to the SPCAs in its municipal area, nothing has materialised and the cash-strapped NPOs continue to find themselves in dire straits and 100% reliant on support from the public.

Empangeni SPCA urges members of the public to continue to support its charity shop, which is now upstairs at Fiveways Mall, while Richards Bay asks the public to continue to support its monthly market days on the last Saturday of every month.

Donations of any goods that can be sold by the SPCAs are also welcome.