The first contactless dog and other unusual animal charity fundraising tales

Digby Bodenham By

Pet charity Blue Cross last week introduced the world’s first contactless dogs. The four-legged friends are part of a scheme the charity calls ‘tap dogs’.

The dogs, including two cheerful Labradors called Smudge and Rosie, wear jackets with contactless payment devices sewn in, which means members of the public can tap a contactless payment card or device against the dog to make a £2 donation.

It seems like the dogs enjoy being out and about meeting people and it’s a charming way of highlighting the work Blue Cross does in giving pets in need a second chance.

The charity may have created a 21st Century update on the guide dogs for the blind collection boxes (does anyone else find it weird that we put money in a hole in a fake dog’s head?), but it’s not the first unconventional way of donating money to animal organisations.

At Bought By Many we have groups for people with rescue dogs or rescue cats can get exclusive insurance deals.

We believe that the insurance industry should be fairer, so we negotiated a deal that helps other rescue cats and dogs that haven’t been lucky enough to find new homes yet.

Our partnership was due to end in May but we’ve extended it for a few more weeks.

You may have heard about eccentric millionaires leaving pets money in their wills – like this spoiled pooch that already has a $100,000 a year allowance for “paw-dicures” and shopping sprees.

And pet charities also inherit millions every year. The Donkey Sanctuary received £21m in 2014 from money left if people’s wills, which was more than the £16m left to the Royal British Legion, according to the Mirror.

The RSPCA was left a whopping £64m and the RSPB received £30m.

Some pets even take part in fundraising for other kinds of charities. We recently heard about the heart-warming tale of Jack Russell Terrier Spot and his owner Rupert Lycett Green.

Spot and Rupert walked 140 miles across Yorkshire in May and raised more than £60,000 for Pancreatic Cancer Action after Rupert’s wife Candida died from the disease 18 months ago. There’s more on Spot and Rupert’s walk here.

One of the strangest stories of animal charity donations in recent years happened during the conclusion of US reality show Survivor last week.

During the live final pop star Sia ran on to the stage to say she would give third-place contestant and animal lover Tai Trang $100,000, half was his and half he could donate to an animal charity of his choice!

We bet fans of the show didn’t Sia that coming.
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