We are excited to launch our Absolute Pets Mandela Day Mission 2018. Last year, you blew us away with your support of the campaign, which saw us donate thousands of essential pet care products and much-needed pet food to incredible animal welfare organizations all over South Africa. With your help, we can make an even greater impact this year! Here’s how.
Building on the success of last year’s campaign
Last year we donated 5026 items and 4154 kgs of food to 34 different animal rescue organizations across Cape Town, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Since 2017, we have opened a further 12 Absolute Pets stores and so our list of animal rescue organizations we will be supporting has also grown. In total our Absolute Pets Mandela Day Mission 2018 will support 44 different animal welfare organizations around the country.
How you can participate
Here is how our Absolute Pets Mandela Day Mission 2018 works:
- Each Absolute Pets store has selected an animal welfare organization in their community.
- Between the 1st and 18th of July 2018, each store will be collecting donations at their store for the selected organisation (pet care items, not cash).
- You are welcome to donate items from home or you can purchase items from the store to donate.
- For every 67 items collected at each store, Absolute Pets will match it with 67kg's of food for that organisation. So 67 items = 67 kgs of pet food and 134 items = 134 kg's of pet food.
Why we need to support animal welfare organizations
Too many cats and dogs in South Africa do not have a loving home or even the basics like a warm place to sleep and something to eat. Animal welfare organizations are dedicated to making a positive difference to these animals.
Not only do they take them in to their shelters to eventually rehome them, many of them also provide the necessary medical care to nurse them back to health , they implement sterilisation campaigns to prevent uncontrolled breeding , educational campaigns to reduce the amount of abuse and neglect; and of course microchipping campaigns to minimise the number of strays due to lost and unidentifiable pets.
For example, DARG (in Hout Bay) reported vet bills ranging from R55 000 to R70 000 a month and have conducted 120 free pet sterilizations in local communities in the last 3 months.
We asked Wollies Animal Rescue in Gauteng and DARG in Hout Bay (Cape Town) to share some information of the current situation:
Stats from Wollies Animal Rescue (1 April to 24 June 2018):
- animal adoptions = 198
- animals returned to owners = 48
- animals found = 110
- animals surrendered to Wollies (no longer wanted by owners) = 174
Stats from DARG (1 April to 24 June 2018)
- animal adoptions = 52
- animal returned to owners = 66
- animals found = 30
- animals surrendered to DARG (no longer wanted by owners) = 15
This helps us understand just how serious the situation is but also how much work these organisations are doing and therefore how much help they need from their communities.
Read this article for a summary of what they do and how you can help.
Ideas for what to donate
Animal welfare organizations make an enormous difference to cats and dogs in need. Here are some of the items they are so often in need of.
You can donate any of the above at your nearest Absolute Pets store, simply bring them in or add an extra item or two to your basket when you do your own shopping with us.
Some of the animal welfare organizations who will benefit
These are just a few of the animal welfare organizations around the country who will benefit from our Absolute Pets Mandela Day Mission 2018, and the respective stores that will be supporting them.
Cape Town
- African Tails (Absolute Pets Kloof)
- Fallen Angels (Absolute Pets Bayside Mall)
- PitPals (Absolute Pets Canal Walk East)
- Mdzananda Animal Clinic (Absolute Pets Cavendish)
- Uitsig Animal Rescue (Absolute Pets Parklands Junction)
- Raise n Rescue (Absolute Pets Table Bay Mall)
- Caledon Animal Welfare (Absolute Pets Whale Coast Mall)
- …and more.
Gauteng
- Woodrock Animal Rescue (Absolute Pets Featherbrooke & Village@ Horizon)
- 4Paws Animal Shelter (Absolute Pets Kyalami & Nicolway)
- Purrpaws (Absolute Pets Linksfield & Mall of the South)
- Animal Angels (Absolute Pets Eden Meadows & Greenstone)
- Pretoria Dog Rescue (Absolute Pets Jean Crossing & Lyttelton)
- Animal Allies (Absolute Pets Coachman's Crossing)
- …and more.
KwaZulu-Natal
- Sables Creatures (Absolute Pets Ballito & Salt Rock)
- Feeding the Furballs (Absolute Pets Southway)
- Phoenix Animal Care & Treatment Centre (Absolute Pets The Pearls)
- Husky Rescue KZN (Absolute Pets Watercrest Mall)
- uMgeni SPCA (Absolute Pets Howick & Hilton)
- Pietermaritzburg Animal Rescue & Rehome (Absolute Pets Liberty Mall)
- …and more.
Help us make a difference
“There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.” Nelson Mandela
Help us this year to make a difference to animals in need! With your help, we can have many more happier and healthier pets in our communities.
Happy & Healthy
The Absolute Pets team