SERVICE DOG HEROES DESPERATELY NEED FUNDING TO KEEP THE PROGRAM ALIVE
Author: riaan@wecanchange.co.za
A service dog training facility based in Cape Town since 2016 needs funds to facilitate the training of Medical Service Dog Heroes and TheraPets.
Honey’s Garden has graduated 18 successful service dog teams and trained 3 working TheraPets! These dogs save and enrich their people’s lives on a daily basis!
Honey’s garden was established in 2016 with the training of the first Diabetic Alert Service Dog to be trained within South Africa (Honey the Golden Retriever)
Shortly after, several other interested parties came forward for Diabetic Alert Service Dogs. In 2018, Honey’s Garden decided to open their Service Dog range to other disabilities and diseases. Honey’s Garden trains each dog as an individual, for an individual. Service dog tasks are tailor created for the purpose of the individual applicant.
Founding Director Lucy Breytenbach (BSc Hons) is a registered qualified Canine Behaviour Practitioner. Lucy is from the UK but has resided in SA since 2010. Medical Service Dog programs are growing internationally, and Lucy aims to make Medical Service Dogs as accessible to the South African public as Guide Dogs for the Blind are.
In order to cover basic costs for training of these dogs, Honey’s Garden collect a Family contribution donation of R50,000 per dog trained. They carry out minor events and fundraising initiatives to cover the remaining costs (approx. R90,000 per dog is needed in total)
Many of the families in need do not have this donation readily available and so Honey’s assists with fundraising campaigns and with networking their pleas. Honey’s strives to have costs of training the service dogs covered by sponsors so that the families do not need to raise this large sum of money. This way the dogs can be allocated based on need and not on fundraising abilities.
The need for these dogs is great within South Africa, they are life-changing animals to families living with disabilities and diseases. Honeys Garden desperately needs funds for this work to continue.
