Andre and
Natalie van der Merwe of Snowdrift Siberians
are joining in the fight to help find cures for
pet cancer.
“All the dogs on our team this year will
be sporting bright orange Pet4Pets™ charity
collars,” said the van der Merwe’s,
Cape Town dog mushers and registered Siberian
Husky breeders. The collars are sold at www.pet4pets.com to
support pet cancer research. Each collar sold
raises money for the Animal Cancer Foundation.
The South African Dryland Sleddog event takes
place on 28th and 29th July in Belfast, hosted
by the SAFSS (South African Federation of Sleddog
Sports). This event and the sport of sledding
celebrates the dramatic 1925 delivery by dog
sled of lifesaving medicine for a diphtheria
outbreak in Nome, Alaska.
When the van der Merwe’s team sets off
from Belfast this July, they will be joining
the race to cure cancer in pets and people.
“Like many dog owners, we have lost a
dog to cancer. Akeela, one of our 12-year old
retired Siberians, lived out her last days with
this disease. It broke our hearts to watch
as this once amazing athlete be beaten by cancer,” they
said.
Karen Ramstead, a Canadian resident and 6-time
Iditarod veteran musher told Snowdrift about
this worthy cause. In agony at Akeela’s
diagnosis, we felt that sponsoring the collars
was a way to honor our canine companion.
“Akeela – with her Princess attitude
and piercing blue eyes, made friends wherever
we went,” they recalled. A beautiful bitch,
Akeela was a South African Champion and a worthy
ambassador for our breed, holding the title “Top
Bitch” in South Africa for a number of
years.
“If telling Akeela's story can help make
it so someday another dog owner doesn't have
to watch their dog go through this, we’re
all for it,” they said.
Van der Merwe’s sponsorship of charity collars
for the Animal Cancer foundation helps raise awareness
that scientists studying pet cancer can also shed
light on human disease and that many pets with
cancer may benefit from new human cancer therapies.
For more information, visit www.pet4pets.com. |
