PizzAroma, a family-owned pizza shop in Maumee, Ohio, is going to the dogs. Or, rather, customers looking to adopt a four-legged friend are going to PizzaRoma.
Ever since the pandemic, pets have been getting abandoned or surrendered at animal shelters in the Toledo area. A report by WTVG notes that inflation and an increase in backyard breeders have added to the problem.
Enter Kara Hanford, general manager of PizzAroma. “If I could take them all, I would,” Hanford told WTVG. But no one person can handle the load, nor can overwhelmed shelters. So, instead, Hanford has begun attaching flyers to PizzAroma’s pizza boxes spotlighting pets in need of a loving home.
“We try to have people from the rescues put animals on the flyers that have been in the shelter or a foster home the longest,” Hanford said, attributing the idea to a friend. “Let’s get those guys adopted.”
PizzAroma isn’t the first pizzeria to help match lonely dogs and cats with human owners. PMQ has previously reported on pizza shops that use their delivery and carryout boxes for the purpose. In 2020, for example, a Just Pizza & Wings Co. store in Amherst, New York, teamed up with the Niagara Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to feature dogs in need of adoption on its pizza boxes. Anyone who adopted a dog shown on the boxes received a $50 gift certificate for Just Pizza & Wings.
Helping find adoptive homes for pets can also boost a pizzeria’s visibility in the community—even the country. As PMQ previously reported, the Just Pizza & Wings Co. franchisee, Mary Alloy, was even featured on CNN for her work. “We are all animal lovers here, so I got permission from the franchise to do it and immediately got to work,” Alloy said at the time.
PizzAroma’s efforts might not make nationwide news, but the spot on WTVG was certainly good for business—and for raising awareness about the problems faced by shelters that can’t accommodate all the animals they’re taking in. The WGTV story also got picked up by MSN.com.
After the promotion was first announced on social media last month, Hanford said, “People are just raving, telling us it’s a great idea and saying that is amazing. We’re going to keep doing it….If we get a lot of flyers, we will try to rotate to make sure every animal gets on the boxes.”
