As Warner Bros. Discovery celebrates the success of James Gunn’s Superman, so did another unexpected winner, rescue dogs. Inspired by the movie show-stealer Krypto the Superdog, pet adoption interest has seen an uptick of over 500% following the film’s release, which hopefully means that more pups will eventually find their forever homes.
This data comes from dog-training app Woofz, which stated that “Google searches for ‘adopt a dog near me’ jumped up 513%” following the movie’s release on 10 July, while searches for “rescue dog adoption near me” increased by 163%. Krypto’s shnauzer and terrier mix impacted the searches as well, with the “shnauzer” adoption keyphrase rising by 299%.
The increase in adoption interest does make sense, as Gunn had previously shared that Krypto was inspired by his own rescue dog, Ozu, with the filmmaker sharing a post on Instagram that read: “This film has been a barrage of blessings for me: this one may be the greatest. Ozu has no idea any of this is happening but, if he did, he’d be proud.”
This news might be great news for plenty of rescue dogs out there, but adoption hype from a movie does come with the consequence of some adopting pets purely as a statement or trend, with no thought on the long-term commitments required to properly raise an animal. To this end, Woofz’s CEO, Natalia Shahmetova, provided a statement to The Wrap to encourage potential adopters to think before they commit, which read, “Adoption is a real commitment. The hype will fade, but your dog will stay, so make sure you’re ready to give them the time, care, and training they need and deserve.”
This marks the second spike of pet adoption interest surrounding the Superman film. Prior to its release, Warner Bros. teamed up with Best Friends Animal Society, covering pet adoption fees in the week leading up to 10 July, leading to a total of 454 pets adopted in that period in the USA. This isn’t the first time one of Gunn’s films has had a positive impact on animals either, with his 2023 threequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 garnering praise from PETA for shedding light on the abusive nature of animal testing.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
