Community Hour brings together dog lovers for socially responsible pet ownership

Community Hour, based in Fourways, is building a compassionate community, one paw at a time. This is after the non-profit organisation, offering volunteering opportunities for all school going learners to support their personal and course mandated volunteering and service requirements, collaborated with Dogs Trust for a fun-filled day of pop-up adoptions, vaccinations, and microchipping at Kingfisher Park in Fourways.

The Dogs Trust is an organisation that rescues and rehomes abused and neglected dogs, and works to improve their living conditions.

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Sarah Welton-Blake, from Community Hour, said the aim of the event, and collaboration, was to promote socially responsible pet ownership, while supporting The Dogs Trust’s vital work in caring for rescues in neighbouring Diepsloot. “The event has been set up as a community event. This is a community park and it is fitted access space for everyone that lives in this environment. Every evening, dogs lovers and owners come to the park and rebuild the community at and around the park.

“We just wanted to support The Dogs Trust. The reality is, every year we need to vaccinate our dogs. It is our responsibility and we are morally obliged to protect our dogs, as well as dogs that they are coming in contact with. We collaborated with The Dogs Trust, and they do pop-up adoption and vaccination days. So, under normal circumstances, vaccinations can be a costly endeavor, but we are doing it today for a normal annual vaccination fee of R200. We’re also microchipping dogs, so, we are trying to create a socially responsible community.”

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She said, as Community Hour, they also admire the fact that The Dogs Trust cares for rescues, as well as feeds and sterilizes dogs in Diepsloot, which is their neighbour. It is really important to see these synergies, build extended communities, and support one another.

“It is all about bringing the community together. The outcome is that animals will be safer, and people get the opportunity to meet other like-minded people.”

Wetlton-Blake said linking volunteers with volunteering opportunities is what they do best as an organisation. “We link volunteers, mostly school going volunteers, with volunteering opportunities that are age appropriate, engaging, safe, and accepted by the IEB, which has a requirement for life orientation to have a certain amount of accredited volunteering as part of the subject. So, we help to facilitate that, and that is my passion.”

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