It all started in 2006 when Dawie and Yolanda Hamman (now two executive committee members and co–founders of PetPals) came across a very skinny and undernourished German Shepherd dog in an informal settlement called Morkels Cottage in the Strand (Helderberg, Western Cape). They stopped and fed him from their car boot where they always kept spare dog and cat food in case of such an emergency.
It soon escalated into the regular feeding of all the animals in the Morkels Cottage township. They also started to arrange spay days in order to control the number of pets, they provided shelter for the dogs, and they educated the people with regards to petcare. Other animal lovers started to support Dawie and Yolanda’s efforts. Their ‘service area’ expanded to other nearby townships (such as Beverly Hills) and surrounding poor communities. |
