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Shelters do everything they can to find their animals forever homes. From encouraging people do “adopt, don’t shop” to holding adoption events, volunteers work hard to clear the shelters, but some animals are harder to find families for. In those cases, you need to start thinking outside the box.
Like one shelter that teamed up with a local brewing company to help get the faces of their dogs out there. It’s a story that combines everyone’s two favorite things: cute dogs and cold beers.
Jerad Ryan is a volunteer at 4 Luv of Dogs Rescue in Fargo, North Dakota. The group has plenty of dogs in need of good homes, and when Jerad was at work he got a stroke of inspiration for a new strategy.
“I was always trying to think of ways to promote her and the other less fortunate dogs in our rescue,” he told CNN. “At my job at Northern Plains Label we produce labels for breweries, and I just had the light bulb style idea to feature the dogs on beer cans.”
A good way to get a dog adopted is to get their photo out there. Plenty of shelters post cute pics of their dogs, hoping that the right owner will fall in love and take them home.
So why not take things further and put the photos on beer cans? 4 Luv partnered with Fargo Brewing Company to feature the faces of some of the dogs on their cans, sold in six packs at a special not-for-profit event held Tuesday.
The dogs featured on the cans are a special case, dogs who maybe need a little more help when it comes to being adopted.
They’re known as “Oneder dogs” (pronounced “wonder,” like the band from That Thing You Do!) because they need to be adopted to a home without any other dogs.
“Some of these dogs, while being great with people, have a hard time socializing with other dogs and therefore don’t get to come to foster puppy meet & greets,” Fargo Brewery explained on Instagram.
“They can be a little bit tougher to find homes for, foster homes, that type of thing,” Jerad told KVRR. “So, we are featuring those dogs in a can and bringing them here, so the public can meet them.”
While these dogs might have had a rough time finding homes, they have a lot of love to give. Fargo Brewing Company shared the stories of two of their beer can faces.
A dog named Nyx is “super smart” and loves to do tricks, and is always excited to greet people. And Buzzy is “a sweet, energetic lady with a whole lot of affection to give” who loves snuggles and being active.
These dogs don’t mind other dogs, but prefer being alone with their humans.
The event was held November 4, with a dollar of every pint of beer purchased going to the dog rescue.
Both the rescue and the brewery were optimistic that their partnership would lead to positive results for the dogs.
“This really has been great exposure for these harder to adopt dogs, and I would be surprised if this doesn’t lead to an adoption or two,” Jerad told CNN.
“We hope that having these dogs featured on the cans will help raise awareness and shine a spotlight on them where they might normally have been overlooked,” Fargo Brewing Company said in a statement.
What a great idea! Thank you to this shelter for thinking outside the box, and for this brewing company for stepping up to help these dogs!
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