Advertisement
IRL

Pokémon Go players are walking shelter dogs in Indiana

Gotta walk ’em all.

Photo of Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle

Article Lead Image

Since Pokémon Go was released last week, parks and other outdoor areas have been swamped with people walking around glued to their phones–many with pups in tow. 

Featured Video

Now players in Muncie, Indiana, can take it a step further, walking shelter dogs as they hunt for Pokémon.

“Come down to the Muncie Animal Shelter to walk one our dogs while you get their steps in,” a Muncie Animal Shelter flyer read. “Just come to the front desk and say you are here for the Pokémon dogs!”

[Placeholder for https://www.facebook.com/MuncieAnimalShelter/photos/a.223109177771509.54516.220023711413389/1050999401649145/?type=3&theater embed.]
Advertisement

Phil Peckinpaugh, director of Muncie Animal Shelter, told the Daily Dot he came up with the idea after playing on the app with his 6-year-old daughter on Tuesday.

“The next day, while on the way to work, I saw just droves of people walking all around our city, which is home to Ball State University,” he said. “On the campus of that university, there were just tons and tons of young people playing this game and I just thought it would be such a great fit if we could pair these people who are playing this game with dogs at our shelter, and get our dogs out for some stimulation, exercise, and exposure.”

Phil Peckinpaugh

Phil Peckinpaugh

Courtesy of Phil Peckinpaugh

Since posting the ad to Facebook, the shelter has seen a huge spike in volunteers and a couple adoptions. Peckinpaugh said on a typical day the shelter gets five to 10 volunteers, and yesterday 73 Pokémon Go players showed up to walk dogs. At press time, the shelter had seen 62 volunteers and was expecting to pass the previous day’s record.  

Advertisement

“The response has just been amazing,” Peckinpaugh said. “We’ve had families drive from outside of our city—from Noblesville, which is right outside of Minneapolis, to Bloomington, which is two hours away, and we had a couple come from Fort Wayne.”

Users online responded positively to the news, but not without a bit of humor at times.

Advertisement


Advertisement

Advertisement

https://twitter.com/WeedleQueen/status/753632104060256257

Peckinpaugh said Muncie has heard of a few other shelters that have started to use the same idea.

“I think that’s great,” he said. “I think that it such a great thing for the dogs at every shelter in the United States. It’s easy, it just makes sense. It’s the right thing to do for the dogs.” 

 
The Daily Dot