HILLCREST nature and animal lover believes that humans and animals can live in harmony. Because of his love for all wildlife, Dingo has been inspired to introduce people to his passion for loving animals.

Raised by animal lovers, Dingo Dinkelman said his love for animals was strengthened by his father. “I grew up in Pietermaritzburg, and when I was a child, my father introduced me to animals. We were told that animals are not something to be scared of,” he said.

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Today, Dingo has social media pages that reach over 2 million people a year. Dingo said the pages allow him to teach people and demonstrate to them that animals are friendly. “My focus is conservation; we want people to fall in love with animals. Loving animals changes one’s behaviour towards them, and in turn, people can stop fearing them and respect them,” he said.
Dingo’s social media pages also include animal awareness such as being aware of rhino poaching. In his most recent challenge, Dingo climbed into people’s cars with a snake. He said this was one of his ways to introduce people to the loving side of animals.

“At the beginning of the video, you can see that people are scared, and towards the end of the video, they warm up to the animal, and their behaviour changes. This is the message we want to send out to people,” he said.

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In continuation of following his passion, Dingo and his team are running three public engagements during the December and January Festive period – one at the Pavilion Shopping Centre, one at Shelly Centre on the South Coast and one at Piggly Wiggly in the Natal Midlands.

People are free to follow the animal lover on social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and Instagram (dingo_dinkelman). He goes by the handle of Dingo Dinkelman.