More than 150 people have shown up for 'Pokemon Go' dog walks
More than 150 people have walked a dog at the Muncie Animal Shelter over two days since Phil Peckinpaugh's viral Pokémon Go promotion.
"We've had people call all day (and say), 'Oh, we're going to come in this afternoon,'" the shelter's superintendent said. "It's awesome. It's just awesome."
He was driving on Mulberry Street in downtown Muncie when the now world famous idea hit him.
"I just saw droves of people tearing up their phones and I knew exactly what they were doing," the Muncie Animal Shelter Superintendent said by phone Tuesday night. He knew the masses were playing the immensely popular mobile game Pokémon Go. "I thought, 'This would be awesome if they all had a dog.'"
He quickly turned around a simple graphic that set socialmediaablaze with its offer to Pokémon Go trainers to walk an adoptable dog while hunting their next big catch. The Internet couldn't resist the trap that is cute dogs and Pokémon as the picture rose to the front page of Reddit by the end of the night Tuesday with about 6,000 "upvotes" and more than 1,000 comments.
Peckinpaugh said the shelter's Facebook post, which has been shared 26,000 times, reached more than 1.5 million people. The equally brilliant and adorable marketing strategy first caught the attention of Time Magazine on Tuesday but later made Buzzfeed — where it racked up 66,000-plus likes on Facebook — and The Huffington Post.
The shelter has about 75 adoptable dogs that people are welcome to check out and take for a walk anytime. They've been running this program — albeit without the charming Pokémon twist — for a long while, and usually invite community members to take the dogs to Ball State University's campus, Minnetrista or PetSmart to get them some fresh air.
"I just want our dogs to have stimulation and exercise," Peckinpaugh said. "I didn't have any ulterior motives; it was an incredibly pure motive. I just wanted our dogs walked.
"That's still all I want, I just want people to come and walk our dogs."
Pokémon Go fans ‘gotta catch ’em all’ in Muncie
He figures if he can get even 1 percent of people reached by his Cubone and Growlithe meme to come volunteer or walk a dog, the shelter will be in great shape. Meanwhile, he's flattered to see his idea getting international attention.
"I'm tickled," he said with a laugh. "I mean it's, way more than ... I hope that we can retain some volunteers. I hope this 'Pokemon Go' isn't something that lasts a couple weeks.
"I hope the shelter becomes a hot spot."
Ball State sports reporter Dakota Crawford loves dogs and "Pokemon Go'"and doesn't care what you think about it. Follow him on Twitter @DakotaCrawford_.