HOUSTON – If you use Uber, you may have received an email this morning about 'Uber Puppies' arriving Tuesday.
Kevin Tran saw the email and wanted to have the puppies delivered to his office downtown to bring a little fun to the office atmosphere.
"I got the email and I just randomly sent it to some others as a joke like, 'Hey', we should do this,' and then they were like, 'This is actually a really good idea,'" said Tran.
Here's how it worked: Uber partnered with Barc Animal Shelter and Adoptions to raise awareness for animal adoption in the area. When the program was on during the lunch hour Tuesday, users saw the option to select puppies in addition to uberX, uberSELECT and Black Car.
Office workers were able to adopt on the spot for a cost of $20.
"We'll have two puppies on every trip and the reason we are only delivering them to offices is we want to maximize the amount of puppy playtime. The demand will be high and we are also looking for enclosed spaces such as conference rooms so the puppies can run around," said Uber GM Sarfraz Maredia.
Uber said it offered the puppy delivery service for $25 for 15 minutes of puppy playtime and all the proceeds are being donated directly to BARC.
As for Tran and his co-workers at Accumyn Consulting, having the puppies was all worth it, in fact one of his friends adopted one of the pups Tuesday.
"I think it's a really great idea, especially because it's more of an office-related thing," said Tran. "There's a lot of tension and stress in the work place, so I think this is really a good idea to get people a little de-stressed and help a good cause at the same time."
The exact number of puppies adopted Tuesday isn't known, but KPRC 2 News was told many found new homes.