Facebook films Muncie Animal Shelter’s ‘Pokemon Go’ walks

MUNCIE, Ind. – The director of an Indiana animal shelter says Facebook has hired a production company to shoot video about its effort to encourage “Pokemon Go” players to walk an adoptable dog.

Muncie Animal Shelter director Phil Peckinpaugh said a film crew shot a video about the shelter’s efforts in Muncie on Monday. It’ll appear on Facebook Stories, a produced video series the company says celebrates “the connections people make on Facebook.”

Peckinpaugh promoted the program on Facebook after the smartphone game craze sent groups of players walking around the community in search of digital creatures.

More than 250 people visited the shelter between July 12 and July 17 after Peckinpaugh advertised the program on Facebook. The post was shared tens of thousands of times as of Tuesday morning.

“I just love dogs and that was the motivation to have people walk them,” Peckinpaugh said. “I hope the momentum continues with people playing the game, walking the dogs.”

Raymond Tsang, co-founder of Only Today, a production company based in Portland, Oregon, said creating this video fits well with Facebook Stories’ theme.

“It’s because of the impact that’s been made through one simple post for an animal shelter,” Tsang said. “The tie-in to the Pokemon Go game was maybe secondary to that, simply because how a lot of people have given their time to the shelter. We wanted to learn about the people that are doing this and have adopted because of it.”