The Cluny Animal Trust raised funds to build 100 kennels, stock them with warm blankets and food before the bitter cold sets in.
Free State, South Africa – The Eastern Free State faces brutally cold winters with temperatures sometimes dropping to below -8 degrees at night. Any person would feel this cold but the animals who live outdoors, really struggle. That is why the Cluny Animal Trust worked to raise funds for 100 new waterproof kennels, warm blankets and dog food.
The charity launched a BackaBuddy crowdfund to help raise funds to build 100 kennels. Their goal was to raise R15,000. Thankfully, the charity was gifted so many extra’s above and beyond the R11066.65 they managed to raise. Meaning they have loads left over and as promised, they will be using every cent towards their sterilisation drive.
The charity has almost completed the 100 kennels, all they need to do before their Mandela Day event next week is to add the roofs and waterproof the final kennels. They shared their exciting progress online for all the crowdfunding donors.
“We are in the process of finalising our 100-dog kennels for needy dogs in the Clarens and Fouriesburg areas. What a wonderful and impressive sight it is to see the 100 kennels lined up on the empty lot next door to the vet in Clarens, the roofs and waterproofing will go on the kennels during the next couple of days.
This entire project would not have even got off the ground without all of the wood and nails supplied by Kerry and Rod from Advanced Crating Solutions – they have truly been amazing and supportive, even sending down a huge truck at their own expense loaded to the brim with wood and we are truly thankful that they answered our call and that they are such huge animal lovers!
We had another kennel build day earlier this week and we have to say thank you to Allan, Jacques, Chris, Rick, Thabo, Isaac and Neels who have helped us out by giving their time to make the kennels.
Then we had planned to put a blanket in each kennel, but we were amazed by the sheer generosity of Esme Ferreira and her team from March Interiors in Johannesburg who are making a proper dog bed for each kennel, we have 30 beds already and the balance will be delivered to Clarens early next week, all of the dogs are going to be very spoilt indeed!
The dog food has been ordered and it is on its way so each dog owner will be getting food as well.”
They are hoping for one last push will help them get the kennels done, asking community members for unused paint which they will use to decorate the kennels on the big handover day.
“One last thing we would like to ask Clarens and Fouriesburg locals reading this post – please could you check your garages/storerooms for any half-empty cans of paint that you don’t want or need and please drop them off at the Sandstone Vet in Clarens. We plan that each owner paints and decorates their kennel before taking it home and we will have a few prizes on the day for the best-decorated kennels!
To everyone who generously donated money to this project using the BackaBuddy website or directly to us, THANK YOU SO MUCH, the support has been overwhelming and better than we ever hoped for! Because of all the donated material, we will have money left over and we plan to use it to sterilise more animals in the immediate local area.
So watch this space because the post next week is going to be a fun one and we can’t wait to see the look on the owner’s faces when they receive this wonderful gift for their pets.”
You can follow the big day on their Facebook page here.
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