Man to walk dog from Cape Town to Pretoria

A man is trying to push his dog in a wheelchair from Cape Town to Pretoria to raise awareness of disabled dogs and people.

Marne van den Heever (69) started pushing his three-legged dog “Tripod” on Thursday and was near Caledon, about 100 kilometres away, by yesterday, the Cape Argus reported.

The sheepdog was rescued from a shelter last year and was being pushed around in a modified wheelchair, with an umbrella and a compartment for food and water.

Van den Heever said he was testing the 1 400km route to see if he could turn the long walk into a fundraising event for disabled dogs and people at a later stage.

“I want to see not only if I can cope with the distance, but also I want to see if the dog gets stressed. If it does work out I will approach sponsors and make the necessary arrangements to make it official,” he told the newspaper.

“If it doesn’t, I will call someone to pick us up. I want to make this abundantly clear, I am not doing this right now to raise money.”

According to Cape of Good Hope SPCA CEO Allan Perrins, Van den Heever walker had told the SPCA he was walking to raise funds for among others the SA Veterinary Association Community Veterinary Clinics.

- Sapa