Florida dogs featured on craft beer cans ready for adoption
Motorworks Brewing donates proceeds to Shelter Manatee
A Florida brewing company is helping mankind find his best friend through a partnership with a county dog shelter.
Bradenton’s First craft brewery, Motorworks Brewing, put the faces of pups in need onto a special four-pack of its beer cans, making it harder for customers to resist those puppy-dog eyes.
The ADOPTABLE DOG Cruiser Kölsch 4-PACK features four dogs from Shelter Manatee and their adoption numbers with a short story about each furry friend. The cans also come with information about how people can donate to the shelter.
Proceeds from each four-pack go towards Shelter Manatee, the only open-admission shelter in Manatee County, Fla., which take in abandoned, owner-surrendered and stray animals, and its efforts to build a new shelter for their four-legged friends. However, the brewer is also hoping these creative ads will help the pups find their forever homes.
"The response from the community has been amazing," said Barry Elwonger, sales and marketing director of Motorworks Brewing. "Everyone loves the concept and the cause. People are reaching out from across the country asking how they can help the shelter,"
The cans were such a success in fact, that two of the dogs have already been adopted. King and Morton are now on their way to their forever homes.
Candy and Day Day, two of the dogs on the cans, are still looking for homes.
The brewer introduced the special beer at its monthly "Yappy Hour" charity event where the dogs featured on the can were on-site and ready for adoption along several more "puppers-in-need," the brewer said. The monthly event that raises funds for local animal charities started six years ago when the company first opened its doors. Each month the unique event benefits a different non-profit.
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"We love sharing this beer garden with our friends — two legs or four," said Elwonger.
The brewer made 450 four-packs of the light German Kölsch-style ale but Elwonger said they are selling so fast they expect to be completely sold out by this weekend.
The brewer only advertised four dogs during its first run but due to the tremendous response the company received, they are in talks with the shelter about doing another run with other dogs at the shelter, Elwonger said.
"The community takes care of us and we try to take care of them."
Hans Wohlgefahrt, outreach and events specialist at Manatee County Animal Services, told Fox Business that the shelter took in an average of 12 animals a day in 2019 and is dependent on the public to think of them as the first place to go when considering a new pet.
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"This collaboration with Motorworks Brewing and Shelter Manatee brings much-needed awareness to Manatee County Animal Services, the only open-admission shelter in Manatee County," said Wohlgefahrt. "We love these animals as we care for them, treating each of them as individuals with their own stories— these cans honor that by showing their beautiful faces and telling their stories."
Over 2019, the shelter had a 95 percent save rate and community collaborations like the one with Motorworks is how the shelter is able to have this successful percentage, Wohlgefahrt said.