RSPCA's Give to Get Them Home appeal - donations doubled up until midnight
The principle of karma holds that good things result from doing good deeds for others. Today the RSPCA Give to Get Them Home appeal presents a window of time to do an especially good deed for animals that need help because every single donation to the charity will be doubled.
For a dog aptly named Karma, that donation-funded help came just in time. Now seven-years-old, this American Staffordshire Terrier is hardly recognisable from the skeletal animal seized by RSPCA South Australia inspectors when they went to a Para Vista address to investigate a cruelty report.
Karma's former owner was charged under SA's Animal Welfare Act but failed to attend court on multiple occasions. She was eventually arrested under warrant and convicted for cruelty. The case's delayed progress through the court system meant Karma spent more than a year in RSPCA SA's care.
Most of that time she lived with volunteer RSPCA SA foster carers Carlene and Adam, who helped the dog recover from both physical and psychological trauma. Before long, the couple knew they wanted to give Karma a permanent home, but this was only possible if the dog's owner agreed to surrender her to RSPCA SA, or a magistrate ordered the dog be forfeited. Eventually the latter happened, and Karma could be adopted.
"It was the hardest year of my life waiting to know if we could keep her, and the nightmares and sleepless nights imagining what would happen to her if she was returned to the original owner," Carlene recalled.
"She's a totally different dog now and has so much personality and is very smart.
"She's certainly very loved and has changed my life in so many ways. We are more than happy to support this appeal so that more animals like our beautiful Karma can be helped."
The one-day only, nationwide RSPCA Give to Get Them Home appeal is now underway and will end at midnight. Every donation made online through the dedicated appeal site or via a dedicated phone line is being doubled, thanks to national dollar-matching partners Royal Canin, Peter Alexander and Bravecto, state partners author Fiona McCallum and Hickinbotham Homes, and generous local donors.
The appeal is timed to boost funds ahead of RSPCA SA's busiest time of the year, with more than 2,500 animals expected to come through its animal care centres at O'Halloran Hill and Whyalla over the next three months.
Donations during the one-day appeal can be made online or via telephone on 1300 777 221. (In order to be doubled, donations must be made via the appeal's dedicated website.)
