- Title: A purrfect match! Animal shelter puts lonely pets on Tinder
- Date: 11th August 2021
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (German) BENJAMIN BEILKE, SENIOR WRITER FOR AGENCY TERRITORY, SAYING: "You expect to find a human partner and we switched it around a little and so the whole thing gets more exciting, also from users who may be surprised to find an animal, we received very nice comments, there were real dialogues. It certainly was the right choice to choose Tinder."
- Embargoed: 25th August 2021 12:13
- Keywords: Tinder abandoned animals coronavirus holidays loneliness shelter
- Location: MUNICH, GERMANY
- City: MUNICH, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA005EPU3TXJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:A German animal shelter is trying a new approach to find homes for abandoned pets: it is posting their profiles on dating app Tinder in the hope that lonely humans looking for love might also settle for the company of a cat or a dog.
With the demand for pets rising rapidly during the pandemic with people shut out of a social life and working from home, there was also a rise as lockdowns eased of unwanted pets being taken to shelters. The shelter in Munich is now trying to find them all a perfect partner and a better home.
"First of all, we hope to find homes for the 15 animals that we created profiles for. We purposely did not take the cutest, tiniest, new-born kittens but animals that have some sort of history. I hope that these animals really find a new partner, a 'purrfect match' in the long term and not just for a few weeks. Other than that, it was important to us to highlight that there aren't only lonely souls among humans, but there are also a lot of lonely souls among animals," Jillian Moss from the Munich Animal Shelter said.
"It does have a lot to do with the coronavirus summer holiday season because we are full to the limit. With some animals we can't tell why they were brought here and the reasons range from allergies to overload to 'it no longer fits our situation.' We can only ever tell by the animal's age but the coronavirus and the summer holidays definitely play a large role as many people are overburdened."
The Munich Animal Welfare Association got an advertising agency to shoot professional pictures of 15 animals including a black-and-white cat called "Captain Kirk" that it put on Tinder.
Jillian Moss from the animal shelter said several people have swiped right on Tinder to set up their first "date": "The response is insane, it's exploding everywhere."
"We hope that these animals really find a new partner, a 'purrfect match' in the long term and not just for a few weeks," said Benjamin Beilke, who is coordinating Tinder communication.
"There aren't only lonely souls among humans, but there are also a lot of lonely souls among animals."
(Production: Ayhan Uyanik, Ute Swart, Michele Sani) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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