RSPCA Million Paws Walk

The Million Paws Walk is held in May each year at around 60 sites around Australia, with tens of thousands of people and their pets participating. As well as organising the walk, many sites also provide entertainment, displays, stalls, vet checks and a host of other activities. The Million Paws Walk is a great day out for all and an important fundraising event for the RSPCA. Funds raised through entry fees and the sale of merchandise help assist the RSPCA to operate its animal shelters, support its Inspectorate services and provide community education on animal welfare issues.

For detailed information please click here.

History of the Million Paws Walk

The Million Paws Walk was inaugurated in Queensland in 1994. The idea came from Dr Cam Day, who was the RSPCA Queensland Operations Manager and Veterinarian at that time. Dr Day believed a special event involving animals of all types walking together could be a 'Win-Win-Win', situation, providing a fun day out for pets and their owners, while promoting responsible pet ownership and raising much needed funds for the RSPCA.

Dr Day also saw the potential to have one million paws walking together (belonging to 250,000 animals), effectively raising $1 million dollars for other disadvantaged animals. One of the aims was to multiply the financial benefits to the RSPCA by owners gathering sponsorship for their pets.

Dr Day's vision for the Million Paws Walk was a national and ultimately, international, event for animals and their 'families' worldwide.

The concept was passed by both the RSPCA Queensland State Council and the RSPCA's National Council and the event was trialled in Queensland with the assistance of PR students from the Queensland Institute of Technology.

The inaugural Million Paws Walk was held in Brisbane's New Farm Park in October 1994 as the main focus of Pet Week celebrations. The major sponsor was Hills Science Diet, beginning a tradition that continues on a national level to this day. Other sponsors were Ciba Geigy, Mavlab and the Brisbane City Council. In that inaugural event, five hundred people took their dogs and cats for a stroll around suburban streets, raising almost $10,000 for the RSPCA and for disadvantaged animals.

The 1995 event was again held in New Farm Park, however Queensland's October weather proved too hot and in the 1996 event was held in May, when it also spread statewide to the centres of Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Kingaroy. The day was a success in every region, with families and their pets enjoying the walk while helping to raise more than $70,000.

The Walk also went 'national' in 1996, when RSPCA Victoria held the first walk outside Queensland. RSPCA Victoria also sought corporate sponsorship that year and Hills Science Diet continued its support, becoming the major national sponsor for the event, a tradition that remains to this day.

1997 saw RSPCA branches in Victoria joining in, along with New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia, where 500 walkers and their dogs celebrated the event by walking around Adelaide's Victoria Park Racecourse, winning a state fundraising award for Special Events.

In Western Australia the event grew at a similar scale, with 3500 people attending the event at Sir James Mitchell Park in 2000. Favorite WA moments have included most of the Hockeyroos team being beaten by the dogs over an agility course challenge in 1999, and the dogs doing better than their owners in a bootscooting class. WA's most notable entrant would have to be the sheep who had been raised in suburbia and was convinced it was a dog (unfortunately the rest of the dogs didn't think so), it won the most unusual pet prize in 1998.

In 1998, the Melbourne crowd grow to 1,200 people and 1,500 dogs at Victoria Park. In 1999, with the inclusion of non-RSPCA centres in country Queensland, RSPCA Queensland had also introduced the concept of former cruelty victims leading Million Paws Walk as guests of honour. The animals, wearing blue and white coats bearing the words 'I was rescued by the RSPCA', are now featured in many of the walks around Australia.

The year 2000 in South Australia saw the event moving to Bonython Park, Adelaide, with around 2,500 walkers and dogs, Wyalla joining in with around 500 walkers. The Brisbane event moved that year to South Bank parklands, with some 6,000 people and their pets.
In 2001 there were 57 walks around the country with every state and territory of Australia participating.

Dr Cam Day, who is no longer working for the RSPCA, is still heavily involved in the Million Paws Walk and is its proud and enthusiastic Brisbane compere each year.