Animates customers raise $23,000 for earthquake affected pets

The aftershocks may not have ended, but Animates customers have gone a long way to helping calm Canterbury’s pets and their owners.

The customers have raised over $23,000 to be divided evenly between the Cats’ Protection League, Dogwatch and SPCA Canterbury. Animates contacted its club members nationwide and advertised in-store, encouraging people to add a donation to their purchases.

Animates General Manager Richard Bowker said the majority of the funds came from customers outside of Canterbury, underlining the widespread support and sympathy for pets and their families following the quake.

“Money alone is not the answer to finding or re-homing all these pets, but it will go a long way towards supporting the fantastic work of the SPCA, Dogwatch and the Cats’ Protection League in helping at this critical time,” Mr Bowker said.

The three organisations will use the funds to care for pets surrendered by people whose homes have been affected and are no longer able to care for them, either temporarily or permanently.

Other uses include providing pet food and veterinary treatment and to develop their facilities which will enable them to help more pets in the future.

Pets are the less obvious victims of the Canterbury earthquake. After the first shock, the SPCA had more than 460 missing cats and dogs registered with its ‘Track-a-pet’ service. This compares with 77 pets registered at the same time last year.