Eight staff members from the Animal Welfare League’s Coombabah shelter in Queensland will be sleeping in the kennels where the dogs are held until adoption in order to better understand what the waiting dogs go through. They want to experience kennel life but also see what the dogs do once the staff leaves for the night. The Animal Welfare League (AWL), a non for profit organization, is dedicated to re-homing stray and abandoned animals, and they’re hoping the event will raise both money and awareness for the shelter.
The eight staff members who will be spending the night will enter the pens at 8pm this Friday evening and stay there until the shelter opens at 10am the next morning. They will be allowed to have the same items as would be in there with the dogs. They will be allowed to take in a pillow and blanket since the dogs are given blankets and beds to lay on.
The shelter wants this project to go beyond the shelter itself by encouraging all Queensland children with dogs to participate by camping out with their pets in the backyard this Friday or Saturday night. The shelter felt that by opening the event up to children and asking them to get sponsored for their night out with the dog that they would feel like they are helping the shelter. The shelter has even set up a special website for the event http://www.outwiththedogs.com.au/ so that children can learn about it and register in order to participate. As of right now there are 34 children participating which the shelter thinks is great considering they came up with this idea two months ago and haven’t gotten to promote it as much as they might have likes. They say that this will hopefully be an annual event.
