{"id":259630,"date":"2026-01-30T17:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/259630\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T17:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:10:15","slug":"raglan-doggy-daycare-floofsters-donates-100-of-profits-to-animal-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/259630\/","title":{"rendered":"Raglan doggy daycare Floofsters donates 100% of profits to animal rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

All profits will go to Huha (Helping You Help Animals), a no-kill shelter in New Zealand founded in 2001 by Jim and Carolyn McKenzie.<\/p>\n

\"AA dog relaxing in a outdoor space at Floofsters in Raglan. Photo \/ Leonie Anholts <\/p>\n

\u201c[Carolyn] has been a big part of this project right from the planning stage. She\u2019s got over 30 years of experience [in animal welfare],\u201d Hearth said. <\/p>\n

She has been a Huha board member for two years, and choosing the organisation as Floofsters\u2019 charity partner \u201cjust made sense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Through her role, she hears of some \u201cpretty gnarly\u201d cases of animal abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the absolute worst,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to try and do something to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearth won\u2019t be a stranger to many, as she\u2019s also the co-founder of Raglan Food Co<\/a>, the company best known for its vegan coconut yoghurt, with business partner Seb Walter.<\/p>\n

She later established the Values Trust, a charitable trust that channels profits from her businesses into causes she cares about, such as animal welfare.<\/p>\n

For Raglan<\/a>, a place she described as a \u201ctown of dog lovers\u201d, Hearth believed a doggy daycare was a gap that \u201cneeds to be filled\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t a doggy daycare in Raglan,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn indoor space for dogs at Floofsters. Photo \/ Leonie Anholts <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a dog, and it wasn\u2019t something we could ever utilise here. We\u2019d have to drive all the way into Hamilton<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Floofsters felt like a \u201cnatural fit for the community\u201d, while also serving as an awareness tool and fundraiser for animal welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s [a] need, but we also wanted it to be for a cause,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hearth described herself and her family as \u201cpassionate animal lovers\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cMum doesn\u2019t have any grandchildren yet, just granddogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floofsters is a \u201cfamily-run charity\u201d, with Hearth\u2019s two sisters working onsite. One sister, Cindy Randall, manages the centre.<\/p>\n

Her father, an architect, designed the building, while her husband used his \u201cgiant\u201d industrial 3D printer to create the fit-out using recycled plastic.<\/p>\n

Floofsters can cater up to 40 dogs a day, with separate spaces for big and small dogs. <\/p>\n

There are indoor play areas with obstacles, beds, and even couches for a rainy day, and \u201cbig\u201d outdoor areas with sandpits, paddling pools, and agility and obstacle courses. <\/p>\n

Behavioural training is also done onsite, as well as an enrichment room for one-on-one physical and mental stimulation. <\/p>\n

More than 60 dogs have already been signed up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been quite a long journey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"FloofstersFloofsters in Raglan can cater up to 40 dogs per day. Photo \/ Leonie Anholts <\/p>\n

Hearth was born in Dargaville and homeschooled, but always had a keen interest in business books.<\/p>\n

At 12, she opened her first business buying and selling cellphones on TradeMe, and at 15, she was working full-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been doing this kind of thing, and I just really enjoy it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hearth wants Floofsters to be a flagship model, and ultimately wants to expand across New Zealand. <\/p>\n

She believed it had the potential to become a \u201cbig generator for animal welfare projects\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople often don\u2019t have the money or time or resources to be able to address it themselves, and need a bit of support,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty excited to support the cause of helping animal rescues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearth welcomed anyone to visit the daycare\u2019s store at 3205 State Highway 23, Raglan. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything to do with Floofsters is all for animal welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RaglanRaglan Food Co co-founder and co-owner Tesh Hearth. Photo \/ Dean Taylor<\/p>\n

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakat\u0101ne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All profits will go to Huha (Helping You Help Animals), a no-kill shelter in New Zealand founded in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3548,6030,3648,138,85768,149253,98756,149255,2036,1888,149254,5511,1446,111,139,69,1118,1864,9324,8693,8527,213,1961,2044,61,12806,13745,2443,102],"class_list":["post-259630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-3548","tag-again","tag-animal","tag-business","tag-daycare","tag-doggy","tag-donates","tag-donating","tag-entrepreneur","tag-first","tag-floofsters","tag-just","tag-making","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-opened","tag-profits","tag-raglan","tag-rescue","tag-sports","tag-this","tag-time","tag-to","tag-venture","tag-waves","tag-welfare","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}