All across the country fans and supporters gather to celebrate the largest football game of the year, the Super Bowl. Well attention pet owners and pet lovers across America, the Puppy Bowl is the biggest game played on all fours! After seven consecutive years, the Puppy Bowl is returning to Animal Planet, a television show watched by pet lovers all over. It begins today, February 6, 2011 at 3:00 pm Eastern time, and runs until 3:00 am. The Puppy Bowl, the most watched alternative to the Super Bowl, will feature 47 rescue dogs of all breeds from around the country scurrying to carry their squeaker toy across the endzone.
The Puppy Bowl works like this. Out of the 47 dogs present and accounted for, only 10 may be on the field at one time, competing to be the first to cross the endzone with the “ball”. There are fluffy toys, squeaker toys, and toys shaped like footballs scattered across the 19 foot long battle field. Any dog can grab any toy and if they make it across either touchdown line, they score! “It’s the cutest two hours on television, it’s impossible to look away,” said Andrew Schechter, four year puppy bowl referee and an Animal Planet Producer. “We have fun making it but there is a serious message. We talk about the importance of pet adoption, especially from local shelters.”
Is there a better way to see puppies available for adoption then to watch them having fun, romping through a field of toys in a competition to cross the endzone? Maybe that’s why the Puppy Bowl gains in popularity each year, with most of this year’s players already adopted and ready to move to new homes.
New additions to the Puppy Bowl of 2011 include the puppy cam, which gives viewers a pups eye view, chicken cheerleaders, and the kiss cam, which Schechter describes as, “owners kissing their pets, pets kissing owners, pets kissing pets, it’s a lot of kissing.” Anyone one who would rather watch puppies instead of the human football game on Super Bowl Sunday will be in good company, with the 8.6 million viewers who tuned in to 2010’s marathon broadcast.
Animal shelters continue to raise awareness of the abundance of pets in need of good homes, and with the help of pet lovers across the country and Animal Planet, so many homeless puppies are given a family to love them.
