Oyen Pet Insurance (Oyen) will be joining the campaign to raise donations for the Homeless and Orphan Pets Exist Animal Shelter (HOPE), by forwarding 10% of all its proceeds from their official store to the animal shelter based in Pekan Nenas, Johor as part of the H.O.P.E Project on Shopee.
Oyen’s founder Kevin Hoong said, “We at Oyen believe that being a part of the pet ecosystem means that we also need to play a part in helping our community, which includes shelter homes and adoption centres like the HOPE. The pandemic has certainly impacted their operations in caring for the rescued animals and our goal is to provide immediate relief to HOPE to support their shelter efforts during this challenging time. In the long run, together with HOPE and other animal or pet non-government organisations, we hope to promote sustainable and responsible pet ownership to new and current pet owners in Malaysia.”
One of the reasons Oyen decided to join this campaign as well as opening an online store on Shopee is due to the increase of pet adoption by Malaysians during the ongoing lockdown since March 2020. Having launched their Shopee official store, the pet insurer will be offering discounted medical kits and microchips for pets. The medical kit is vital for pet parents to treat minor injuries for pets at home, especially during the movement control orders. Additionally, the microchip is an electronic identification crucial in Oyen’s mission in creating a comprehensive pet database in Malaysia.
“With the rise in pet ownership and pet humanisation, especially during the pandemic, we foresee more Malaysians getting their pets insured as this would help them manage their future vet medical expenses. Despite being a digital-first platform, we want to also bring our user experience offline and engage physically with the pet parent community. With a Shopee store, we can achieve this objective by launching pet healthcare-related products to help our pet parents provide the best care to their pets,” Hoong added.
Since its establishment in April 2021, Oyen has experienced a growth rate of pet owner sign-ups averaging 100% month on month. “In terms of pet insurance protection, we are currently providing more than RM2.5 million worth of coverage to Oyen pet parents in vet medical care, burial cost and third-party liability protection,” Hoong added.
Meanwhile, the management team leader of HOPE Animal Shelter, Kimmy Kok said, “In the past two years, a lot of our regular events and activities have been forced to stop such as the most important large-scale charity events and outdoor adoption drives. Our volunteers, donors, and adopters are unable to enter the shelter because of restrictions. Therefore, our fundraising and adoption rate has been hit hard by the pandemic.”
Kok added that the economic downturn due to the continued lockdown has caused people to abandon their pets.
“These pets who are used to living at home will find it very difficult to adapt to the life of a stray. Many of them will encounter car accidents or other accidents after being abandoned by their ruthless owner. Therefore, our rescue cases have continued to increase. In this sluggish situation, in addition to facing the increasingly serious social problems caused by these irresponsible people we also have to face the dilemma of greatly shrinking donations and adoption,” added Kok.
Kok said that compared with the two years before the pandemic, donations have fallen by 40%.
“While the HOPE animal shelter continues to operate 365 days a year to take care of more than 3,000 animals, various rescue cases outside the shelter are also endless. The pressure is really unimaginable,” she said.
Meanwhile, Shopee Senior Manager (Marketing) Kenneth Soh said, “Having Oyen Pet Insurance on our platform selling medical kits and microchips shows their confidence in Shopee’s ability to reach pet lovers across Malaysia while nudging them towards becoming responsible pet owners. As the e-commerce sector grows, more new services will start being offered on our platform including insurance for pets that our users cherish. We hope that the company expands to offer such services to our users in the future, catering to a market across Malaysia and even regionally as they continue to gain presence through e-commerce.”
Oyen Pet Insurance will be part of The H.O.P.E Project alongside pet food supply companies ProDiet and ProBalance currently ongoing till 8 August which marks International Cat Day. To find out more about the campaign, visit https://shopee.com.my/m/88-HOPE.
This campaign will run in conjunction with Shopee’s 8.8 Brands Festival which is currently running till 8 August, features Free Shipping with a minimum spend of RM8 as well as daily 88% off vouchers and RM8 Branded Deals.
There are also up to 38 million Shopee Coins up for grabs with Shopee Prizes when users play Shopee Farm, Spin & Win, Shopee Bubble, Shopee Candy and more.
H.O.P.E is a registered NGO & also a NO-KILL Animal Shelter at Pekan Nanas, Johor, established in 2008, sheltering over 3000 dogs & cats (highest stray intake in all pet shelters in Malaysia) founded by Aunty Jia Jia. Winner of 2014 Iskandar Malaysia Social Hero Awards (IMSHA) for Animal & Wildlife category, HOPE is mainly funded by donations, and they have monthly expenses of RM170K for animal medical expenses, foods and the running of the shelter.
