'We Want To Reunite Pets With Their Owners': N.J. Pizzeria Puts Missing Pets On Pizza Boxes
MATAWAN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - A New Jersey pizza shop is delivering more than just food.
The owner of a small business in Monmouth County is not only bringing families to the dinner table, he's also serving up hope for families looking for their missing pets.
Angelo's Pizza in Matawan has been in business for 45 years. Last week, they changed up their policy: From now on, they're going to be posting flyers on their pizza boxes of missing pets.
"We had about 400-500 boxes here," said owner John Sanfratello.
But every one of those boxes are now gone. The rest will be used the same way: To carry food out of Angelo's Pizza and also send a message.
"In the past, as you know milk cartons, they used to put missing people on it, I thought why can't we do the same?" said Sanfratello.
However, it's not missing people that are plastered on these boxes: It's missing pets. Signs are taped to every single box.
"We want to reunite pets with their owners but we also want other business to take up the initiative and do the same."
It all started after Sanfratello saw on social media that one of his neighbor's cats went missing. It struck a chord with him, since it looked similar to his own cat that disappeared years ago and was found. But before he could even put the flyers on his boxes, his neighbor's cat was also found.
His mission has just begun.
"Just kindhearted, and I think it triggered a community effort by everyone, supportively," said Lara May, whose cat went missing.
"I really don't know why nobody has thought about it before, but it's a great idea," said delivery driver Veronica Barber.
The pizzeria is inviting anyone in New Jersey with missing pets to come give them flyers.
They've used more than 500 boxes to help find a 10-month old puppy that's training to be a seeing eye dog.
"She's been lost for three and a half weeks. We have been scouring the woods, posting flyers. She's up on Facebook," said Peggy Gibbon, director of canine development at Seeing Eye, Inc.
They're also looking for a cat.
He says he plans on doing this until all the missing pets in New Jersey are found.
His sister is now doing it at her pizza places in Florida as well.
