Animal Lovers in the Philippines are Booking Valentine’s Dates with Shelter Dogs

What a great way to spend Valentine’s Day: skip all the chocolate and sappy cards and spend it with a rescue pet in need. That’s what some folks in the Philippines have chosen to do this year in support of a local shelter.

A dozen people in Manila chose to spend their Valentine’s Day at an animal shelter run by the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). For the honor of hanging out with one of their shelter dogs, guests were charged between $9.12 and $18.24 for half an hour with a furry date. The fees collected will go towards shelter operations, which oversees the care of more than 240 dogs and cats.

Philippine Animal Welfare Society

“Some of these dogs were rescued from abusive households, or they came from the streets with traumatic experiences,” said Mary Grace Burgos. She not only owns seven dogs of her own but attended the event to spend time with the homeless animals in need of attention.

“With these kinds of events they can be immersed with different people, and help them socialize and, hopefully, improve their social skills and get them adopted in the future, she added.

Animal Awareness

Sharon Yap, PAWS campaign officer, hopes the experience will make guests fall in love with the animals in need of forever homes. “The awareness for pet adoption is not that high, and there are still a lot of people buying pets. And it’s a sad fact that a lot of animals in the shelter can give all the love that they can give, but they aren’t given any chance,” she stated.

This is a problem all over the world. For some reason, regardless of some rather vigorous awareness campaigns, a lot of people still gravitate toward pet stores and breeders rather than giving an animal who desperately needs a home a chance at happiness. And that happiness works both ways. Rescue pets have just as much love and smoochies to give as store boughts.

Valentine’s Day Adoptable Dates

Here in the U.S., a number of animal shelters have hosted similar events, as well as some online dating apps that have included rescue pets for adoption on their platforms the week of Valentine’s Day. If you work in animal rescue, you have to get creative if you don’t want to see animals languishing or turned away because there’s no more room at the inn.

Another way to observe Valentine’s Day and help a shelter in the process is to check an animal out for a few hours or even a day to give it a much-needed break and maybe even a yummy Puppachino. You can also visit a rescue’s website and track down their wishlists to donate towards. Most of them have lists with Amazon, Chewy, and various other suppliers.