Brewery helps shelter dogs find forever homes — by putting their faces on beer cans
A Florida brewery is working to help dogs find their forever homes — by putting their faces on beer cans. Motorworks Brewing in Bradenton, Florida, has released a special four-pack of one of its flagship beers this month that features adoptable dogs from a local animal shelter.
The brewery introduced the beer at its January "Yappy Hour" last weekend — a monthly event to raise funds for local animal charities.
The pups featured on the beer cans, as well as several other adoptable dogs, were even at the event to show off their wagging tails in person, according to the brewery's Facebook post.
The unique cans — and pups themselves — were a massive success. Two of the dogs featured on the cans found their forever homes at the event and more than 150 four-packs of the beer were sold, according to Barry Elwonger, the brewery's director of sales and marketing, told CBS News.
"The response from this project has been overwhelming," Elwonger said. "We have had countless calls and messages about the program and we are elated to have raised so much awareness (and money) for the shelter already. We love dogs here at Motorworks Brewing and cant thank the community enough for getting behind this initiative."
There are still "plenty of cans" of the beer on sale at the brewery, but Elwonger said they are going fast. The company is even thinking of producing another run of the labels featuring different dogs in the "near future."
The brewery has also received many inquiries about the brew from customers outside of their local area. But, as it can't legally ship their beer, Elwonger said the company has come up with another creative solution.
"We had a small amount of left over labels from the initial run and since we have received so many requests from customers outside of our area we thought selling the labels themselves would be another way to raise funds, which it seems like it will be," he told CBS News. He added that several of the labels had already been ordered in the hour since the brewery listed them on its site.
The proceeds from the sales will go to benefit local organization Shelter Manatee and its efforts to build a brand new shelter for animals in need.
