A charity tackling what it describes as an “escalating kitten crisis” is set to benefit from a recent fundraising campaign by Ireland’s largest specialty pet retailer Maxi Zoo.

The Cat and Dog Protection Association of Ireland will benefit to the tune of €32,000 from Maxi Zoo’s ‘Friendship Connects’ campaign. The monies raised will allow the charity to respond to more calls for help from people who cannot afford necessary veterinary care for cats and dogs in need.

The CDPA is a registered animal charity dedicated to reducing the suffering of cats and dogs in Ireland through rescue, fostering, neutering, community outreach and welfare programmes. In recent months, it has reported an alarming increase in the number of animals, cats in particular, in need of rehoming.

 

Carmel Rooney, Director of the CDPA says the money raised through the Friendship Connects campaign will be put to good use, “The need for our services is huge and growing all the time. CDPA is the only Dublin based rescue carrying out a large scale trap-neuter-return (TNR) programme – the only humane way to reduce the number of kittens born, suffering and dying outside. A few years ago we were spaying or neutering six cats a week, now that’s six cats a day. We also respond to calls about dogs, and we really want to help as many animals as we can.”

CDPA believes that if every animal owner spayed and neutered their pets, the amount of unwanted cats and dogs would be dramatically reduced, therefore CDPA adopts out all their animals spayed/neutered. The charity also microchips, vaccinates and has all animals wormed before they are adopted.

 

The Maxi Zoo ‘Friendship Connects’ campaign saw the sale of multi-purpose Pet Pendants both online and across the chain’s 29 Irish stores between October 1st and December 31st. All profits from the sale of the pendants, which could either be worn by pets, their owners or as trolley tokens, were donated to the CDPA.

Anthony Cremin, Marketing Manager at Maxi Zoo Ireland, said the staff were thrilled to partner with the Cat and Dog Protection Association of Ireland, “Our store staff are all animal lovers, and wanted more input into which charity we would partner with. They told us that they wanted to include two of our biggest pet categories – dogs and cats. So the CDPA was the perfect choice, given the incredible work this charity does to protect these animals. We were delighted with the generosity of our customers, who got fully behind the Friendship Connects campaign.”

 

The Friendship Connects campaign is one of many ways in which Maxi Zoo is involved with the welfare of animals. Through its stores, it also partnered with local animal charities as part of its Shelter Wishes Campaign. During the month of December last year, over 2,000 wishes were granted for animals in need during Christmas.