To witness the latest brilliant idea to get shelter dogs in front of more eyeballs, you need only travel to IKEA in Tempe, Arizona. There, in the cavernous showroom, among the fully furnished kitchens and living rooms and bedroom, are shelter dogs. Not real ones, but cardboard-cutout representations of them.
The idea, of course, is that when when you stop, cock your head, and look at this kitchen or that bedroom, imagining your new, modestly priced future, you will also see a new dog. That dog! He's right there. And just as you would pick up your actual Mandall dresser in the adjoining warehouse (I recently did this, and am VERY pleased with it, provided I never think of the four-hour horror-show assembly again), you can pick up the same dog at a nearby shelter.
It's a great match: People who shop at IKEA are looking for bargains, and the adoption fee for shelter dogs usually isn't much. People who shop at IKEA also love to eat Swedish meatballs and walk two miles to extricate themselves from the store -- both things dogs would love, too. (Dogs wouldn't love all the young couples fighting over $ 1 dishes and $ 49 area rugs, though. Please take that behavior to Target.)
The program began in Singapore, with a partnership between Ikea and Home For Hope, a coalition of pet adoption agencies, according to Business Insider. It then moved to the Tempe IKEA, which partnered with the Arizona Humane Society. Each cutout features a barcode, where you can access information about the animal. During the initial run, six cutouts were placed around the Tempe store, and all six dogs were adopted. More are heading into the store on July 29.
Watch a video of the operation in Singapore:
"We thought it was a perfect way to show people what their home would look like with a pet in it," IKEA marketing director Becky Blaine told Business Insider.
Via Business Insider
Read about dogs in the news on Dogster:
