Dogs and people walking for a reason

I don't have a dog, I have 4 cats, but I thought that seeing thousands of dogs walking with their owners and families to raise funds for the RSPCA would be a fun outing!
Besides that I also wanted to donate a few dollars towards the cause.




At 10AM,  I was at Sir James Mitchell Park in South Perth, ready to watch the start of the RSPCA Million Paws Walk.
The weather alternated between showers and sun, but luckily the sun prevailed for most of the walk.

The starting point

In Western Australia this is the 18th year this event is run, with the aim of raising $250,000 to fight animal cruelty. Sadly cruelty to animals also happens here in this 1st world rich country! I guess there are cruel people everywhere...

Ten thousand people attended the event in Perth, with 5000 dogs participating, and around another 2000 people attended regional events in smaller towns of Western Australia. This event is also held in all the other States.

In Perth, the participants had a choice of walking a 1km, 2.5km or 5km course.
I could see a lot of tired dogs at the end, some even needing to be carried...some were a bit overweight, so they weren't used to the exercise!

My owner wanted a lion instead of a dog!!

Some dogs were dressed for the occasion

Some of the RSPCA adopted dogs

Large and small

A lovely pink bow for a huge Newfoundland

There were also lots of tents with food and drinks, a first aid tent for people and a veterinary tent for the dogs. An RSPCA tent sold dog stuff and RSPCA inspectors were on hand to talk to people. Some tents were donating all their proceeds to the event.

The city centre on the other side of the Swan river, and the food stalls

There were dogs in baby prams and in bicycle trailers and some on their owners wheelchairs.

It took a while to get these 12 dogs ready for the photo! I think there were more photographers than dogs for this one.
Aren't they just so adorable?

 I saw a lot of Greyhounds at the walk. When they retire from racing, most of these gentle animals need to get adopted, and there are a few organizations that deal with this.

A plea for caged chickens outside the RSPCA tent. Caged chickens live in the space of a A4 page all their lives. There has been an ongoing campaign for a while now to get people to buy Free Range eggs and chickens. They cost slightly more, but they are tastier and the chickens deserve a better life too.

After the long walk dogs could get a wash for $20 from the City Farmers wash stations.

   
There was a "Dog Dance Demonstration" - which was very interesting and a credit to their trainers.

This dog danced to a "Spanish Bolero"

After their win over the Geelong Cats (from Victoria) the previous night, some of the Fremantle Dockers players participated in the walk with their dogs today.

(Fremantle Dockers and their dogs do the walk - photo from net)

After the walk Matt de Boer (left in this photo with his border collie) who is an RSPCA spokesman, was interviewed on stage about their win and about his love for dogs and the need to protect animals from cruelty. Afterwards the players signed autographs for their supporters.

Sadly by this stage my camera's batteries had gone flat!

There were still a few events to go, but the next event after the Docker's interview was still 40min away, so I decided to go home. 

One of them would be the presentation of the prizes to the "Best dressed dogs", by Narelda Jacobs, one of Channel 10's newsreader, which would have been fun to watch. Next year!

It was a fun event for the people and the dogs.  There were so many different breeds, shapes, sizes and colours but the dogs seemed to be on their best behaviour.
Of course I also loved it!!

Do they have this type of event in your town?