In the spirit of the holidays, Russian side Zenit walked out with their canine friends in order to encourage adoption, and to help them find their forever home. The internet was extremely impressed with the kind gesture on the part of the Zenit players, and took to social media to express their feelings.
Each player of the Zenit side walked onto the pitch at the Gazprom Arena with a dog in their arms to help them find a ‘forever home’. With the nation celebrating National Pet Day on November 30, the 2008 UEFA Cup winners partnered with the Russian Kynological Foundation to promote their campaign encouraging animal adoption, “Pets are better at home.”
The Men in Blue were captured with the adorable pets in their arms and displaying them on camera, as they urged the football community across the globe watching through television and the large crowd in attendance to adopt shelter animals.
This kind act by the Russian club was showcased to the entire world through a video uploaded by Zenit on Twitter, which garnered almost 2.5 million views, with a caption reading,
“Now let’s find homes for these good boys and girls.”.
They also drew attention to local shelters involved in the ‘pawsome’ project, from where the dogs were brought.
“The aim of the project is to highlight to the public the responsibility and care required when having a pet and to help raise funds for local dog shelters,”
Zenit said on their website.
The starting XI of the Zenit squad for the Russian Premier League game against Rostov, which eventually ended in a gripping 2-2 draw, was displayed on the big screen with each of the players captured with their favourite pets who also accompanied them to the pitch.
People on social media could not stop going gaga over the wonderful gesture by the club, as the project gained well-deserved publicity and adoration online.
