To help better the lives of pet owners and their pets, students Sidney Lopez and Ariel Perez are working to bring the community together through the Akela Project.
The Akela Project, named after Lopez’s dog, started after Lopez decided he wanted to encourage community members to spend time with their dogs outdoors. He then began posting on social media pictures of himself and Akela having fun outside.
“The Akela Project is all about getting the community together, and we want to encourage pet owners to go out and be more active with their pets. We want them to go outside [so] their pets will have a better life and just be happy,” Lopez said
After a trip to the dog park located in Dick Kleberg Park, Lopez and Perez noticed that there was not a sufficient source of water for dogs. At the time, the park director would provide gallons of water in jugs. Once the water ran out, those who visited the dog park were expected to change the water and refill the jugs. However, as the clear containers would sit out in the sun, there was an increased risk of bacteria growing in the water. Lopez and Perez then decided that it would be beneficial to provide a safe, clean and shaded water source for animals so that pet owners would be encouraged to take their pets outdoors.
“We made it a lot easier in hopes that more people would go to the dog park because they don’t have to worry about bringing their own water,” Lopez said.
Through this water source project, Lopez and Perez were able to connect with other animal lovers in the community who donated money. This money helped the Akela Project pay for the supplies needed to build the water source which can now be used at Dick Kleberg Park.
Now, the Akela Project has partnered with the Animal Rescue Kleberg (ARK) to raise supplies for those who foster animals in Kingsville. ARK is a volunteer organization that rescues animals from the Kingsville Animal Shelter.
“Our purpose is to place homeless and neglected cats and dogs into permanent homes. Our long-term goal is to reduce the number of stray animals in our community. In addition, we promote public awareness regarding the welfare of animals, and the prevention of over population by spaying and neutering,” the ARK Facebook page said.
Lopez and Perez were inspired to collect donations to support the work of ARK and those who foster dogs and cats.
“We talked to ARK here in Kingsville and we saw that there is a lot of dogs and cats that are in foster homes. We wanted to help them…but I wanted them to know that us as a community in Kingsville we support them. We can’t foster ourselves, but we support those that can, and we want to show them by giving them whatever we can,” Lopez said.
Along with raising supplies, Perez hopes people will be inspired to foster animals as there are very few people who foster the animals rescued from the animal shelter in Kingsville.
“I’ve walked into ARK before and there is just a lot of dogs in cages. It would be better if we had more people to foster and take care of those pets, take them out of there so they can have better living conditions, and maybe by them realizing ‘Hey, you can donate’ or just making resources more available to fosters hopefully that can encourage people to foster,” Perez said.
For those interested in donating to the Foster Care Project, you can donate dry or canned foods, clean blankets, toys, kitty litter treats, bowls, pee-pads, collars and cleaning supplies in the designated bins located at the Memorial Student Union Building, Engineering Complex, Library and Biology Building on campus. Supplies can also be donated at PenSense and Tractor Supply Co. The Akela Project will be collecting donations until Nov. 18.
To keep up with the Akela Project and their projects to help better the lives of pets in Kingsville, follow them at @akela.project on Instagram and Facebook.