It’s tough to pick which Instagram shots we love more: food or cute animals? One of the city’s top vegan spots is swapping one for the other this week, trading its usual posts of decadent milkshakes and burger close-ups for adorable pups. And while you can’t have the food for now, you most definitely can bring the dogs home.
If you’re a vegan restaurant and your mascot’s a dog, it’s a natural fit: Monty’s Good Burger, the plant-based local chain named for one of the owners’ pups, regularly champions animal-rights causes and even hosts a monthly pet adoption in its Echo Park restaurant.
When all three of the Monty’s outposts shuttered in mid March to comply with social-distancing restrictions, it left the regular adoption event without a home but you can’t keep a good dog down. Instead, Monty’s is taking it digital.
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All week long Monty’s Good Burger is posting photos of dogs who are up for adoption or fostering, with all the info you need for bringing a sweet pup to your own quarantined home. (Technically it’s a dog and cat drive, but there’s been no sign of any feline friends as of yet.)
Maybe now is finally the right time to adopt, maybe you’re looking for some temporary company and comfort, maybe you’re looking for a furry excuse to leave the house for a neighborhood walk every day, or maybe you just want to look at some cute pictures of dogs. Whatever the case, this is a pivot we can get behind.
This “Shelter-in-Place with Pets” initiative is spreading the word for shelters and volunteer groups around Los Angeles, including Friends of South LA, West LA Shelter, LA Animal Services, Carson Animal Care Center and West Valley Animal Shelter—just look for photo posts on the Monty’s grid and in its Instagram Stories and you’ll be overwhelmed by cute dogs in need of a friend.
Maybe when this is all over you can walk over to Monty’s with your pal and say thanks (and, you know, grab some burgers and shakes, finally).
Photograph: Courtesy Carson Animal Care Center/Megan Short/@animalinterest, 2020