A Million Thanks for A Million Paws!

May 18 2009

An estimated 18,500 people attended Sunday’s Million Paws Walk at Perth’s Sir James Mitchell Park putting the estimates at the combined number of feet and paws in the park at a staggering 111,000.

“The numbers for this year’s Walk are phenomenal” said Richard Barry, spokesperson for the RSPCA in WA. “We knew we’d be busy but really, we simply could not have fitted anymore people and their pets into the park.”

This year’s event was opened by Western Australia’s new Premier, Colin Barnett who expressed great support for the work of the RSPCA and was clearly amazed at the massive turnout.

“I was on the stage with Mr Barnett and our President Lynne Bradshaw and looking out over the crowd was really quite a thing to see,” said Barry. “Thousands and thousands of people and their dogs as far as the eye could see and not a single area of green anywhere. A truly remarkable sight.”

The Premier announced the start of the Walk at 10am and a stream of people, dragged feverishly by their excited pets, flowed around the Perth foreshaw with no reports of any dogfights.

As the day rolled on celebrities got stuck into the entertainment with Eagle’s legend Michael Braun locked in a Perspex box for well over an hour to raise funds for the Society. “I’m not sure everyone knew what I was doing in the box but we raised a few hundred dollars and that’s what counts,” said Brauny.

Meanwhile another Eagles star, Brent Staker, was getting ready to take on the celebrity challenge – an agility event which the Eagle entered complete with an injured hand which he broke a week ago. ‘Stakes’, hotly tipped to be the fastest contestant on the day was taking on pop-sensation Claire Clarke, Mix radio host Lisa Fernandez and Perth’s Iron Woman, Candice Falzon.

“I think it’s fair to say that Stakes was expected to show us a bit of speed, in-spite of that broken hand,” said Barry “but as it turned out the tiny Claire Clark put Brent to shame and as far as I know the Eagles are now looking for Claire to bolster their line-up come next week!”

Indeed Claire Clark put all the athletes to shame completing the course in just thirty seconds, a full 10 seconds ahead of Staker.

Read what happened later in the day with MPW 2009 Part II later…

Have you seen the pictures from this year's Walk on Flickr? Click here

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