For Diesel, a gray, three-legged dog and longtime resident of the Humane Educational Society in Chattanooga, a long wait came to a happy ending during the holiday season.
A family drove six hours from South Carolina to meet and adopt Diesel after seeing the dog in a video by the Humane Educational Society, media specialist Carley Wilkerson said in an email.
The video featured the shelter dogs picking their own Christmas gifts from a pile of donated toys.
Staff filmed as the shelter pups picked their favorite toy, and the video went viral after it was posted on social media. The video had more than 16 million views on Instagram, 14 million views on Facebook and more than 3 million views on TikTok as of Wednesday. It drew the attention of People magazine, which featured the video on its website.
“We were thrilled to be able to provide this enrichment for the animals,” Wilkerson said. “In the season of giving, we wanted to give them a meaningful and fun moment to cherish. The fact that we could share that moment with the public is simply icing on the cake.”
Social media allows the shelter to showcase the animals in its care on a worldwide stage, increasing their chances of adoption and giving people a glimpse of what life is like for animals at the Humane Educational Society, Wilkerson said.
“Communicating about the shelter can be difficult in words when shelter residents can’t speak for themselves, so videos really help display the human-animal bond up close,” Executive Director Rebecca Bryan said in an email.
Credit: Humane Educational Society
Credit: Humane Educational Society
People from all over the world have inquired about the dogs they saw in the video, Wilkerson said, adding while that type of social media post typically doesn’t bring in many financial donations, it did inspire donations of toys similar to those featured in the video.
The shelter, which provides toys for all animals in its care as part of its enrichment program, also receives overstocked toys from businesses including NoogaPaws, PetSmart and Pet Supplies Plus, Bryan said.
“I had always wanted to do something like this, and with our toy drive that we were orchestrating for our foster program at the time, I thought it was the perfect time to procure the number of toys we needed for the video,” Wilkerson said. “This was the first time we did something like this, but after the success of the video and seeing how happy it made the dogs, I hope we can make it a yearly tradition!”
For information on volunteering to play with animals at the shelter, visit heschatt.org/volunteer.
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
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