Pet Pals

We are a Non Profit Organisation called PetPals which has been established in order to improve the living conditions of animals in townships and poor communities, more specifically the Morkels Cottage and Beverly Hills communities situated in the Rusthof area in the Strand (Helderberg, Western Cape). PetPals was registered and approved as a Non Profit Organisation (NPO) by the Department of Social Development in August 2008.It all started in 2006 with a trip that took pensioner couple Dawie & Yolanda Hamman (two committee members of PetPals) past an informal settlement called Morkels Cottage in the Strand (Helderberg area) where they came across a very thin and undernourished German Shepherd dog. They stopped and fed him from their car boot where they always kept spare dog/cat food in case of such an emergency. It soon escalated into the regular feeding of ±160 animals, as well as sterilisations and medication for the pets. Other volunteers joined them over time & PetPals was established as a NPO in August 2008. Currently, Dawie & Yolanda feed about 500 animals at least once a week. In terms of PetPals’ Constitution, the organisation’s main objective is to improve the living conditions of cats and dogs staying in townships and poor communities in the Strand, specifically within the Morkels Cottage and Beverly Hills township areas (and immediate surroundings), by means of feeding, sterilisation, general vet care, emergency care, and provision of shelter. The organisation’s secondary objectives are to rescue and rehome dogs, cats and litters found within the Morkels Cottage and Beverly Hills township areas that are unwanted, unloved or lost, and to distribute goods / hand-outs to those residents within the said communities who strive towards improved pet-care. The reason for differentiating between our main objective and our secondary objectives is because PetPals specifically focuses on the improvement of the living conditions of animals where they stay / live in the poor communities and less on removing pets from these communities and rehoming these pets. The reason for this is that people in local poor communities will always have animals of their own and due to the prevailing poverty there will always be a need for assistance / relief within such communities. Since 2006, it has always been (and still is) Dawie & Yolanda’s desire to provide this specific service to pets and people in the local poor communities, which is exactly what they are currently doing within PetPals. PetPals is nothing more that a few volunteers who all have one thing in common and that is to try and save, maintain and improve the living conditions of animals in their immediate surroundings. Nearly all the work entails voluntary work done by Dawie & Yolanda on a daily basis i.t.o. feeding, provision of shelter, and transporting of animals for purposes of sterilisation, general vet care, emergency care, etc. The other members provide voluntary assistance on an ad hoc basis (e.g. on spaydays, dipdays, etc.). It is important to take note that no PetPals-member receives profits / benefits / salaries for the work they do, all proceeds go towards improving the living conditions of pets in townships and poor communities (and towards tools in order to conduct such work). PetPals solely relies on donations and sponsorships in order to conduct the voluntary work that we do.Phone 0834110738