A viral social media post by the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center on Saturday, July 20 traveled around the world and led to a spike in adoptions at the facility.
The eleven-photo post tied into Area 51 memes that have taken the internet by storm and showed employees and pets dressed as aliens inviting residents to storm the Longview facility instead of Area 51 and take home aliens (pets) “for the best price in the galaxy.”
“We thought it would be cute, but we didn’t expect anything like this,” said Animal Services Manager Chris Kemper. “We got to a point where we were running out of animals in the back to bring up.”
The post gained more than 144,000 reactions, comments, and shares and reached more than 3.1 million users on Facebook by the afternoon of Monday, July 22 and had been shared on numerous news sites including the Houston Chronicle and the network of TEGNA Inc., with 49 television stations in 41 markets.
The post also garnered attention from Facebook users around the world with people sounding off from Canada, the UK, Ecuador, South Africa, Australia, Cambodia, Argentina, and more.
Kemper said the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center had seen several good adoption days in a row, but after the post went up the facility received a large number of residents come by to adopt.
The post was inspired by the Area 51 internet meme started by viral Facebook event encouraging people to storm the government facility this fall looking for alien life.
In addition to their love for the animals, users voiced their respect for the employees at the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center and their creativity.
“I hope you get cleared out of these beautiful and loving pets, to weird, loving, vibrant homes. I love your strategy. These pets deserve loving caretakers like you that work so hard to find them their homes,” one user wrote.
Another added, “Obviously excellent creativity, but my favorite part of this is how every human genuinely looks so happy to be there. You guys are making a huge difference!!”