Russian First League football team FC Rotor Volgograd took the pitch with shelter dogs for a match last week to support the cause of animal adoption.
Rotor’s starting 11 were each accompanied by a canine resident of the local animal shelter ‘House of Tails’ for the pre-match ceremonies at Volgograd Arena last Friday. Ten of the dogs adorning the pitch were puppies, but 201cm tall (6’7) goalkeeper Nikita Chagrov had at his side an adult named Stewart.
The aim of the publicity campaign was to raise awareness about the shelter and encourage adoptions and donations. House of Tails mobilized a team of volunteers to have their furry friends delivered to the field and also posted several dogs in front of the stadium to hand out leaflets to attending fans.
According to a video report released by shelter director Yana Vodolazhskaya, it was a challenging but fulfilling operation for her and fellow activists. The caretakers of the freshly shampooed and groomed dogs were concerned that their charges would become over-excited and start misbehaving when they met strangers and encountered the stadium crowd. But the young dogs kept their composure.
Apparently rubbing the dogs paws for luck and getting poked with their noses in return did bear fruit for the home squad, she joked during her livestream.
Most of the canines featured at the match are originally stray dogs brought to House of Tails by kind-hearted people who couldn’t care for them, according to bios released by the shelter. Three came from the same litter from a dog whose owner did not want them.
The shelter currently has roughly 1,700 pets in its care, and is always searching for kind people to adopt them.