Pet stores donate to animal shelters in the name of Madiba
The campaign was supported by 82 stores countrywide, as well as the online store
The generosity and kind-heartedness of Absolute Pets and their customers resulted in a lot of happy animal hearts after yet another successful Mandela Day campaign.
Genevieve Baptie, Absolute Pets’ marketing manager said, “We do an animal welfare campaign every year in honour of Mandela Day, to support and raise awareness for the industry. Other than fundraising events (such as dog walks) it’s one of our biggest corporate social investment initiatives each year, and doing something to help animals and the animal welfare industry was a natural choice and something we are very passionate about.”
She added that they thought that this year’s campaign would not be as successful as previous years’ because of the global pandemic, but they were pleasantly surprised. “The sad reality is that many families have had to give up their pets due to the impact of Covid-19. This, along with other changes that have had a negative impact on the industry, have put additional pressure on animal welfare organisations that were already overwhelmed with homeless animals and desperate for support. We are absolutely thrilled with the results of the campaign as it was exceptionally positive.”
The campaign was supported by 82 stores countrywide, as well as the online store, and Genevieve said, “Every store chose an animal welfare organisation they wanted to support, and from 1 to 18 July we invited our customers to come and drop off any pet items for donation. Each store kept track of how many items they received and as soon as they reached their goal of 67 items, they then qualified for an additional donation of 67kg of pet food, which Absolute Pets would donate to that animal welfare organisation.”
The Absolute Pets store in Clearwater Mall chose the Animal Anti-Cruelty League (AACL) in Johannesburg as their beneficiary, and Genevieve confirmed that since their campaign had ended, they have been overwhelmed with ‘thank you’ letters and photos from various animal welfare organisations around the country, expressing their thanks; and not just to Absolute Pets, but to all those people in the various communities that participated, making a real difference to the lives of animals in need.
She concluded by saying, “Absolute Pets extends their sincere thanks to their team in store, their customers and members of the community for making this possible and showing us all how South Africans can come together and take care of one another, despite desperate times”.
