Couple’s pet project offering share joy
A Nelson couple have launched a new pet-project aimed at helping Kiwis connect with furry friends... via the internet.
Lili Wenzel and husband Dave Johnson have started a website, sharemypet.co.nz, which helps link up pet owners with animallovers keen to help care for others’ pets.
Wenzel had first been inspired after spending time on the dog beach.
‘‘There were a lot of people walking on their own and they’d stop and give my dogs a good scratch,’’ she said.
They had a myriad of reasons why they didn’t have a pet of their own.
‘‘Reasons like ‘I’m in a rental’ or ‘I travel too much’, or ‘my dog just died and I’m not ready’, and I thought there are so many people who would obviously love to have a dog or animal in their lives.’’
She’d also met a lot of petowners who struggled to find someone to care for their animal while they were away.
Wenzel’s website caters for people in both categories – New Zealanders can sign up to be a pet ‘‘sharer’’ or a ‘‘carer’’.
‘‘If you don’t have an animal, then you become a carer,’’ Wenzel said.
‘‘Your passion might be rabbits, or goats, or ponies, or particularly schnauzers.’’
Once signed up, people could search for a particular animal and see if there were any owners – ‘‘sharers’’ – nearby.
It wasn’t limited to keen dog- walkers, but could offer parents a chance to teach their children how to care for a neighbour’s chickens or goats, for example.
‘‘You can connect with the owner and say, ‘hey you know what? I’d love to be the person that makes sure they’ve got fresh water and hay, and they’re not tangled up.’’
The website is for over-18s, but children could get involved with parents’ supervision, as a way to learn about animal care if having a pet at home wasn’t realistic.
Wenzel thinks the website will also appeal to elderly who can longer care for pets fulltime.
‘‘It’s about sharing what you have, and the animals are the ones that are benefiting, so they have that extra companionship, extra exercise, and somebody extra in their lives that loves them,’’ she said.
‘‘So instead of waiting all day for mum or dad to get home from work, they’re like ‘oh no cool, it’s a Wednesday, Sue’s going to come around and take me for a walk’.’’
Wenzel said the challenge now was to get lots of people across the country to sign up, as with only a limited number on the website, it couldn’t function as well.
The website went live in early December, but it had been a soft launch with family and friends. Wenzel hopes their presence at the Pet and Animal Expo in Christchurch later this year will help spread the word.
She hopes it will gather momentum as there were very similar, and highly successful, pet-sharing platforms in the UK and US.
Membership to the website is free for the first 12 months, and then a subscription fee applies – $19.95 for a year to be a carer, and $29.99 to be a sharer/carer.
Long-term, Wenzel plans to direct profits into animal welfare non-profits, both in New Zealand and abroad.