Brief Explanation

The Lost Dogs Home is an animal shelter in the inner city suburb of North Melbourne. It does not operate in a competitive environment, and its mission is pure and simple. To care for animals and wherever possible connect them with people who will love them. Like all shelters The Lost Dogs Home is staffed by mix of paid and volunteer staff, all of whom are absolute animal lovers who do the very best they can to find homes for lost and abandoned dogs and cats. But animal shelters often struggle with the sheer number of abandoned pets they have to care for, and this contributes to creating a negative perception of shelter dogs, which makes people apprehensive of adopting one. We set out to change the way shelters talk to people and break the cycle of negativity around shelter dogs. Instead of the poor dogs who needed rescuing – it is the dogs who rescue us by bringing us the joy of having a pet in our life. This is the story of how what started as a small dog adoption campaign for a single animal shelter in Melbourne’s inner north turned the way people engaged with shelter animals on its head; delivered incremental dog adoptions after the campaign, went global, inspired events around the world from Utah to the Netherlands and lead to countless unwanted dogs finding loving homes. This is the story of our activation, The Human Walking Program.