This Wednesday, Pedigree, the company best known for producing dog food, announced the launch of the Fosterverse Program. This program is intended to promote real-world dog adoption by allowing users to virtually foster them in Decentraland.

Pedigree Launches First-of-its-kind Metaverse Initiative to Boost Dog Adoption

According to a Wednesday press release, Pedigree is launching a special initiative for people who own plots in Decentraland. Landowners in the metaverse will be able to upload a 3D render of a real dog from a shelter and take care of and interact with it in the Metaverse. Virtual dog owners will also be able to get updates on the real-world counterparts of their dogs including their adoption status.

Metaverse users can access the FOSTERVERSE program at Pedigree.com/Fosterverse where they can support homeless dogs in new ways. The FOSTERVERSE enables Decentraland property owners to foster real rescue dogs on their virtual land. To participate, landowners upload 3D avatars based on real-life dogs currently listed on Adopt a Pet onto their Decentraland property. Decentraland is a 3D virtual world owned by its users, with digital real estate that can now be used to foster dogs.

Pedigree is seeking to boost adoption rates for dogs in shelters which have, according to data from Shelter Animals Count national database, been declining recently. According to the statistics, only 53% of dogs in shelters end up finding a forever home. The initiative will come with exclusive Fostervese wearables in Decentraland and Pedigree is hoping to boost dog adoption further by matching donations to its non-profit, the Pedigree Foundation, up to $100,000.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is a virtual world platform made available to the public in 2020 and overseen by the nonprofit Decentraland foundation. The platform has been in development since 2015, and, while it had a humble beginning with plots of virtual selling for just $20, by 2021 it rose enough to be seen as a viable alternative to investing in real-world real estate by some.

Decentraland enables users to purchase virtual plots of land and other accessories in the form of NFTs by using the MANA cryptocurrency. MANA has historically been maintaining a price of around $0.7 though it saw a spike in volatility and a jump to nearly $5 in 2021 after Facebook announced its rebrand into Meta. While the token suffered the same fate as many other cryptocurrencies throughout the “crypto winter” of 2022, it has been on a steady rise since the beginning of January.

Last year in November, Decentraland saw its biggest sale yet. The Metaverse Group bought a plot of land on the platform for $2.43 million just days after it was announced that Token.com had acquired 50% of the shares of the company for around $2 million.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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