German Animal Shelter Gets Creative With Finding Homes For Pets

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - An animal shelter in Germany is getting creative to help find new homes for their resident cats and dogs.

Captain Kirk is one of the cats that the Munich Animal Welfare Association is hoping to help.

The shelter took photos of the black-and-white cat to use for his profile on Tinder – a dating app.

"Quite simply, it's a lot of fun and better than boring newspaper ads," said shelter worker Jillian Moss.

"We thought we'd join the young people and follow the trend on Tinder."

You won't find cute kittens or playful puppies on the app. The Munich shelter is featuring older animals who have a harder time finding new owners.

"We've created profiles for 15 potential pets," said Benjamin Beilke, who's in charge of the shelter's communications on Tinder.

He says it's important to highlight that many of the animals at the shelter are lonely souls.

The COVID-19 lockdown last year saw many pandemic puppies adopted.

But some are now being abandoned as people go back to work.

Many of those abandoned animals ended up at the Munich animal shelter. But the organization says that now, they've already got folks swiping right in approval of their new Tinder approach.

Some animal shelters in the United States are reporting the number of pets being returned has doubled since COVID restrictions have been lifted.