CAPS is ramping up its fundraising efforts with an adorable Christmas photoshoot as the shelter reaches full capacity during the holiday season. Photo: Supplied.
A Cape York dog rescue service is urging people to think carefully before parting ways with their pets during the Christmas season.
The Cape Animal Protection Service (CAPS) received $1,750 as part of a Christmas donation project by dog food company SavourLife – a much-needed donation to help cover the operating costs of an at-capacity shelter.
CAPS vice-president Rebecca Roberts said the shelter was already completely full, with many dogs being brought to local pounds during the holiday season.
“It’s up this time of year because a lot of people are going away or their changing lifestyles, and they’re not able to take their dogs with them, so we do see quite an influx,” she explained.
“A lot of people also breed to sell at Christmas, and then they basically get put into the local pounds, and we get asked to take them.”
Ms Roberts said the funds would contribute towards CAPS’ seasonally high vet bills, as well as necessary repairs on the Weipa facility.
“We’ll be putting the money towards our vet bills, which are quite a lot now that it’s coming up to the end of the year,” she said.
“We’ve got $10,000 worth of heartworm dogs in care, so all the funds will go directly to that at the moment.
“We also need to do some repairs on our cages; we’ve got dogs that will come through and they’ll chew the cages because they’ve not been caged before, so we need a bit of fundraising to help us revamp the actual kennel as well.”
Alongside the SavourLife donation, CAPS will also be hosting another puppy photo session after the success of the first Santa Paws photoshoot.
“On adoption day the other week, we did a tropical Christmas-themed photoshoot, our caretaker dressed up as Santa, and all the funds went directly back to CAPS and the vet bills” Ms Roberts said.
“We got a lot of people asking if we’re going to do it again, and now we’re booked out and got over 20 people coming, so it’s amazing.
“It was a quick idea, but we hope to keep it going because it’s a great fundraiser, and clearly people want to take part.”
Ms Roberts said while the shelter was at capacity and could not accept any more dogs, it could still help with rehoming.
However, she urged dog owners and potential adopters to really think before another dog ended up looking through the bars of a cage in a pound.
“It is that time of year when people are leaving, we have a lot of dogs through the pound, and we’ll be dealing with a lot of rehoming and things like that,” she said.
“We can assist with rehoming, but they really need to consider the amount of dogs that are going to come through, and the amount of breeding that’s happening at the moment.
“They’re not a present, they’re a lifelong commitment.”
