Over the weekend, Pet Valu Bradford's Jennifer Pegg locked herself into a dog crate for over two hours while raising almost $1,000 for local animal rescues and charities.
The event kicked off Pet Valu's Pet Appreciation Month (PAW), a fundraising initiative being held at locations across Canada with each store selecting local animal charities to raise money for.
This year Pet Valu Bradford has partnered with Finding Them Homes, James Bay Pawsitive Rescue (Dog) and the Georgina Feral Cat Committee.
The fundraiser kicked off on Saturday in the Pet Valu parking lot, where Pegg sat inside a cage while collecting donations from the community to help bail her out. Pegg and her parents, Bob and Liz Pegg are the longtime owners of the Bradford Pet Valu and have taken part in the cage match event before.
Pegg's goal was to beat her mom's record who has sat in the cage at previous fundraisers, for two hours and 42 minutes. By the end of the day Saturday, Pegg had raised $955 thanks to the support of local residents, with $500 collected within the first hour and a half.
"My parents felt that due to inflation my bail should be raised to $700," she said. "The Community responded and helped me meet that challenge and I reached that goal in two and a half hours - still beating my mom's record!"
The store is hoping to raise a total of $4,000 by this month for their charities of choice.
"This weekend was a great kick-off for our PAW (Pet Appreciation) Month," said Pegg. "To the community, thank you from the bottom of my heart. This community is truly special, they are always there to answer a call for help."
For the rest of June, for every donation of $5, pet lovers will get a ballot for a chance to win one of three gift baskets - one for a large dog, one for a small dog, or one for a cat.
"We also have two jars filled with treats that people can do a donation of $2 be able to guess how many treats are in the jar," said Pegg.
Winners will be announced July 2, 2022.
Other events happening at the store this month:
Saturday June 18 - Finding Them Homes will be on-site participating in an adoption weekend.
Sunday June 19 - The Georgina Feral Cat Committee will be on-site for an adopt-a-thon.
Times are to be determined.
