Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

A Rochdale man is auctioning off this impressive dog kennel made out of beer cans after using his spare time under lockdown.

Gary Seymour, 54, who has his own roofing business said he had started the project more than 20 years ago after he and his friends were wondering what to do with all the beer cans that they had lying around.

He told CEN: “We thought ‘let’s make a dog kennel’ and it seemed like a good idea so we just started doing it. But it never got completed, we only did the walls, and then it laid around for years before it was finally scrapped.”

But after being confined at home during movement restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus, he decided to tackle the project again and this time do it to raise money for charity – with the proceeds to be split evenly between the NHS and the RSPCA.

He said: “I’m at home with my wife and son, and I have a dog as well, a German Shepherd. But the dog doesn’t need the kennel as the dog lives in the house with us.”

He originally wanted to sell raffle tickets but wanted all of the money to go to the two charities, and a lot of people didn’t want to pay package and posting if they won. So now he selling off to the highest bidder, and said so far 230 GBP had been offered.

The project took him three days to finish, and as a roofer he made sure it had an impressive guttering system together with a drain leading down through the polycarbonate floor. The inside is also polycarbonate to give it extra strength, and all the cans are stuck together with silicon to make them waterproof. Inside there is even a light for the dog that might get scared of the dark.

He said the early prototype had taught him some lessons, including the need to be colour-coordinated with the cans as otherwise it looks like a mess. He said he basically liked all types beer, although admitted a preference for Stella and John Smith’s which then featured exclusively on the final design.

He added that he had not drunk all the cans himself, he collected quite a few of them from friends. He also managed to build windows by using two litre coke bottles and cutting the sides so they could be squeezed together to be the same shape as the cans.

Anyone interested in putting an offer can contact Gary on his Facebook page.