Giant teddy bears raise funds for family-run animal shelter on Costa del Sol

FAMILY run animal shelter, Palevlas Protectora de Animales, held a fundraising event on Tuesday, September 28.

Kim Arthurs, the event planner, said that she really wanted to help the family by ‘raising money for them’ after hearing Palevlas was in debt with rent and vet bills from committee member Sonya Kelly. 

Dogj
Kim Arthurs auctioning the teddy bear – Palevlas

The event was held in La Sala Banus, and visitors enjoyed a two course lunch with bottomless wine, entertainment from singer Marlon Roach and Sara Haley’s Mapuchi Moda who put on a fashion show. There was also a raffle with many amazing prizes but the highlight according to Arthurs was the auction where Charlie Mullins OBE of Pimlico Plumbers battled it out with Lord John Day to out bid each other to win 2 giant teddy bears. Mullins topped the bid with an amazing €1500 for the two and Day donated another €500.The event managed to raise a tremendous €5000 which will go towards vet bills, new shelter areas, food and medicine.

Dogh
Sonya Kelly (left) – Palevlas

Events like these are essential as the small family owned shelter receives no government funding and solely relies upon donations and the money raised has been ‘life-changing’. Based between Monda and Guaro the rescue has been running for eight years, and is run by Octavio, his wife Jenny and their 30 year old daughter also named Jenny. 

Everyday chores such as cleaning, feeding, providing medical care and admin are carried out by them as they don´t have any staff. 

This is done 24/7 as they treat their animals ‘like family’ with some of the dogs and cats sleeping in beds inside their house at night.

The unique thing about this shelter is that ‘no dog is caged or tethered’ and all ‘roam free’ around the grounds and some inside their modest finca in the centre of the shelter. 

Arthurs described Octavio as ‘the dog whisperer’, due to his ability to quickly adapt new pups to the pack. Starting from a mere 17 dogs the shelter now accommodates more than 70 dogs and over 50 cats with numbers growing all the time. 

Dogd
Octavio who runs the shelter – Palevlas

Arthurs said  that she will hopefully be organising something in April 2022 ‘when my contacts have had a rest from me asking them for prizes’.

However Palevlas’ next event is on October 12  in the Constitution Park. The event will feature a doggy catwalk of those up for adoption, a catwalk of the public’s pets with various prizes at stake, markets stalls with sweets, coffee, paella, tapas and drinks.

For information about the shelter check out their Facebook page or visit the website

contact Kim Arthurs by email – kimarthurs@icloud.com

For those who wish to donate either join here or Pay pal – palevlasprotectora@gmail.com

READ MORE:

European Cricket Championship

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *