Help! Or shelter will close doors

The 9th Day Animal Shelter needs your help, and fast.

Charmaine Booysens, founder of the shelter is in dire need of financial support if she wants to keep helping stray animals like Bismarck the bait dog found in October and the little puppy that was rescued from a drain near President Square. Charmaine started the shelter in January because there was a need for stray animals to be housed and kept healthy and alive for as long as possible.

Now, with full kennels and more animals coming in daily, Charmaine has been evicted from using the kennel space in Tarlton and uses a space in Oatlands to temporarily house the extra animals.

“We have been offered grounds on which we can build our own kennels, but we need more building materials such as bricks, cement and chicken mesh.

“Over the past two months we’ve begged, we pleaded and we’ve begged some more. Up to date we’ve managed to raise R56 000,” Charmaine shared on the shelter’s Facebook page.

Including a Dis-Chem Foundation donation the shelter has R106 000, but they need R300 000.

Charmaine still has hope, but feels that it seems impossible to raise such an enormous amount of money.

“To date we’ve paid R27 000 to the contractor and R29 240 on building material. We have got a kenneling bill of R89 220 outstanding and three different vet bills, food and flea and tick treatment we need to pay for,” she said.

The kennels currently housing the dogs gave Charmaine an extension for some of the 100 rescues to stay until 15 November, giving the shelter limited time and options before the only option would be to shut the doors for good.

“If you can transfer as little as R20 it will already make a difference. The builder can only continue building if he’s got the material and we cannot get material if we don’t have funds,” Charmaine explained.

“We will never say no. I will always open my heart to any animal that needs help. I am begging the public to also open their hearts and help me build a home for our ‘orphans’,” she continued.

The 9th Day Animal Shelter is a registered non-profit and public benefit organisation that will benefit greatly from any donations the public offers. Contact Charmaine on 082 924 9337 if you would like to help.

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