A new initiative catering for “man’s best friend” added to the fun at the Gymea Village Fair last Sunday.
A Dog Day, held in the car park of Gymea Hotel, included fun activities, stalls, a dress-up Howl-O'Ween competition and the opportunity to spread an important message for people thinking about getting a pet.
The charity Pound Paws organised the event, enabling it to continue raising awareness about re-homing animals in pounds.
Pound Paws’ mantra is “adopt instead of shop”.
Gymea Hotel licensee Joel Hunt said the event was an unqualified success.
“Across the day, there would have been hundreds of dogs here,” he said, adding with a laugh, “Fortunately, they weren’t all here at the same time”.
“We ‘stole’ the idea from another venue in our group. They had run two of them, which were very successful.
“We supplied Pound Paws with the ability to use our space and effectively put on a village fair in the car park for dogs.
“It was an opportunity for them to get across their message of adopting rather than shopping for dogs, while having some great activities and lost of stalls.
“Because Gymea Bay Road was closed for the fair, it was a perfect opportunity for us to use our car park for this purpose.”
Pound Paws founder Brittany Bloomer said on Facebook, “We had a frighteningly great time at Gymea Hotel celebrating Howl-O'Ween with the pups, as well as raising awareness about the importance of choosing to adopt instead of shop”.
“There [were] plenty of adorable trick or treat dawgs, as well as spooky costumes for the for Best Howl'O-Ween Competition.
“A huge thank you to Gymea Hotel our venue sponsor & sponsor DOGUE for helping us put on a great day for the hoo-mans & their furry friends.”