Buy a pizza — and adopt a dog
A picture of Bella, a pit bull mix and three-year resident of the Carbon County Animal Shelter, sticks to a pizza box from Lorenzo’s Pizza Kitchen in Lehighton. Bella is the first dog to be featured on the shelter’s new flyers, which it’s employing to get more pups adopted. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS
You don’t order pizza for the box.
But a local animal rescue is hoping to find another use for the cardboard cartons besides encasing pies.
Tom Connors, director of the Carbon County Animal Shelter, sent out a Facebook post on March 1; he wanted to know if there were any pizza joints willing to put pictures of adoptable pups on their boxes.
Connors said the Nesquehoning rescue currently houses eight puppies and 14 dogs, a handful of whom have been there for years. The shelter posts videos and pictures of the dogs on social media regularly. Some pups, like one Pomeranian who was found last month abandoned on the side of the road, have found dozens of potential homes as a result.
Others, like Bella — a 6-year-old pit bull mix whose called the shelter home for nearly three years — haven’t been so lucky.
“We have a couple dogs here that have been here for three years, through no fault of their own,” Connors said. “Nobody’s connected with them.”
“Those dogs need homes too,” he said.
Within hours of making his ask, Connors returned to social media with good news: Lehighton’s own Lorenzo’s Pizza Kitchen volunteered to feature Carbon’s adoptable dogs on its boxes. A few other pizza joints came forward, and Connors said as of Tuesday, the shelter was contacted by more than 10 area restaurants.
Connors started on the flyers immediately. He’s printing about 1,000 for the first round, which will be taped to the pizza boxes and sent out with orders this month. He hopes the flyer distribution can become a monthly practice, where different dogs who haven’t yet found homes can have their turn being featured.
Giulia Cozzi, manager of Lorenzo’s in Lehighton, said she saw another pizza place in Pennsylvania had done the same thing. So when a friend tagged Cozzi in Connors’ post, she reached out immediately.
Cozzi said the flyers will start going out as soon as their received. She added that Lorenzo’s is willing to keep up featuring pups on their boxes so long as Connor is.
“As long as he (Connors) up to do it, we’re down to do it, too,” Cozzi said. “If he wanted to keep it going all year, we would do that.”
Before that happens though, Connors wants to give Bella a shot at finding her forever family.
She’s featured on this month’s pamphlet.
“She’s an amazing dog,” Connors said. “I love her. I owe everything I can do to make sure she gets in good home.”
