This work is relevant for social good because a permanent home is found for hundreds of street rescued dogs while changing the traditional adoption model giving solution to two problems

First: increasing the dog adoption rate thanks to the fact that now they are the ones searching for people in unthinkable places such as companies and offices.

Second: Improving the worker’s mental health, reducing stress levels, anxiety and absentees throughout experiences that humans and canines had never shared before  

In 2021 adoptions rate decreased 80% vs previous years and the number of adult rescued dogs increased. The foundation started to have no space; food had to be rationed  and all of this was turning into a time bomb that was putting at risk the animal’s well-being.

The foundation Rescatame needed more efficient means to find rescued dogs a definitive home without losing the strict election of applicants.

The Idea: Pet Interns

We created a new adoption channel for pets that changes the lives of hundreds of rescued puppies giving them a permanent home and improving the mental health of employees that are suffering from depression and anxiety in companies.

The strategy:

Target: CEO´s and Human Resources Managers of companies and big corporations that worry for their employee’s mental health and seek work force through LinkedIn.

Approach: Going back to the offices caused stress and anxiety among workers

nevertheless, studies and investigations have shown that dogs have therapeutic properties for people:

"Studies and research show positive oxytocin feedback between humans and dogs".

"Dogs in offices reduce Cortisol levels in humans".

"Pets in offices reduce stress and have a positive effect on employees' health".

"Having dogs in the office improves employee retention, employee health, increases productivity and improves the bottom line” and many more.

Here we discovered that employees need our dogs to improve their mental health and our dogs need to be adopted by the employees. Therefore, we created an internship program in companies as an adoption model. 

The Execution

We contacted CEOs and HR Managers through the most important professional net: LinkedIn. There, we created hundreds of profiles for dogs that are up for adoption, and we assigned to them job titles  of works that companies are looking for: “expert in active pauses”, “Smile creator”, “Love content director”, “cuddle coordinator”, “tenderness analyst” and many more.

Throughout each profile, we sent direct messages to companies asking for internship for our dogs. Each approval came with a study made by the foundation and a support contract for food, care and training as well as some visits to the company. This agreement assured income for the foundation that allows more rescuing of dogs from the streets.

The idea was soon shared by other LinkedIn users mentioning their own companies. 

Local and regional media amplified the program, drawing the attention of the important entrepreneurship reality show, Shark Tank.  

The Results

We inverted the adoption rate of adult dogs vs puppies; in only 2 months – Nov 1st, 2021, to 31st of dec 2021 – we went from 10%  adoption rate for adult dogs up to 60% and to 40% for puppies. 

We increased adult dog adoption by 200% going from 43 to 91 each month. 

More than 56 brands such as  Ford, DHL, ScotiaBank, Master Card, Colgate –among others – were part of the program.

As of today, 23 companies are on waiting list to be part of the program. 

More than 27 media channels amplified the program generated earn media for USD+1.6M appearing in  NBC, Telemundo International, Yahoo News , United Nations Organization among others.

Shark tank, the most important entrepreneurship  reality in the world recalls this initiative as an idea for global implementation.