In Japan, dogs and cats can readily be bought by anyone, at the store.

The price of that means that many dogs and cats are also abandoned and are protected in shelters, or at worst, they’ve been culled. ( 82,902 dog or cat have been culled in 2016)

Even in such situation, shelters have very little money or support to help people understand

the charm or talent of shelter animals. (sometimes they’re well-trained than animals sold in store.) Volunteering to adopt them is not commonplace in Japan.

An algorithm was developed where once the participant selects the shelter dogs and cats of their choice via the campaign page, their Facebook wall can then be lent to them (the animal) for one week. Without the participant having to do anything, photos and posts appealing the animals’ attractive points are automatically posted, and shown on the News Feed of those connected to the participant. As those who saw the posts also participated in the campaign and the process repeated itself, more and more posts conveying the charm of these shelter dogs and cats spread throughout Facebook in Japan.