In January, Bellevue-based company Dogpile.com and its users helped bring orphaned puppies, Jack and Emma, home to the states from Afghanistan where they were rescued by two American soldiers.
Staff Sgt. Daniel Barker and Adam Krause saved Emma and Jack from starvation while stationed in the war-torn country. The men played with, cared for, and bonded with the puppies during the rough months of their deployment, relatives said.
While searching on the internet one day using Dogpile.com, an online metasearch engine, Barker read about the search engine’s Search & Rescue program and recent partnership with The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Search & Rescue is a online philanthropy program designed to aid pets in need by donating a portion of the revenue generated from Internet searches conducted on Dogpile.com to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other animal-related charities.
To track the amount raised for Search & Rescue, Dogpile.com has a running hits counter on the homepage of their site, tracking the dollar amount in donations. To date, the company has reached more than $360,000 and the donations keep pouring in with every click of the mouse.
With an animated dog named Arfie as the company’s mascot, Dogpile teamed up with ASPCA to donate a portion of the revenue generated from online searches. The company adopted Arfie, a virtual know-it-all, to chase down the most relevant results for searches. Users can type in a word or topic and click “Go Fetch!” to get results from more than five top search engines including Google, Yahoo! Search, Live Search, and Ask.com, as well as authority sites Kosmix and Fandango.
Nearing the end of his deployment, Barker decided to reach out to Dogpile.com for guidance and support with transporting the dogs back home to the U.S. The cost and paperwork were roadblocks for the two soldiers, but they refused to leave their loyal friends behind.
Dogpile.com agreed to coordinate both Jack and Emma’s journey and paid for the dogs’ stay in Customs.
“Dogpile had just launched the program and when I read the e-mail from Barker I thought this is exactly what we are all about here at Dogpile,” said Stacy Ybarra, senior director of corporate giving. “Of course we are going to help him out,”
After being delivered to New York City, the puppies were taken home by Barker’s wife, Lisa. Barker and Krause watched their pets by Webcam every day from Afghanistan until their return in late January.
In addition to searching on Dogpile.com directly, consumers can help raise funds and awareness by downloading a Search & Rescue toolbar or by inviting a friend to help out through the Dogpile Search & Rescue Facebook application.
“We wanted to be true to who we are and we wanted to raise awareness about animal search and rescue as well as Dogpile,” Ybarra explained. “We launched it in November of 2008 and given the tough economic times, people just don’t have funds to give to charities. We were looking for an innovative way to offer our users a way to help without having to reach in their pockets,” she added.
The program’s goal is to raise $1 million by the end of this year “and we’ve had just wonderful response by our users. It’s as simple as, you search and money goes to Search & Rescue,” Ybarra said.
Lindsay Larin can be reached at 425.453.4602.
Side Note: Dopgile was ranked highest in customer satisfaction by J.D. Powers and Associates in 2006 and 2007.
Dogpile.com is a business of InfoSpace, Inc., a developer of metasearch technology that combines the top results from the leading search engines to power a portfolio of Web sites, including Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) and WebFetch (www.webfetch.com).
