An Oakland brewery is putting homeless pets on beer cans

Bartender, there’s a cat on my beer.

No worries, though. Images of cats and dogs — all adoptable pets at the East Bay SPCA — will be appearing on the labels of select IPA cans from Ale Industries, putting the beer goggles effect into action in an unexpected way.

“We felt it was important to get as many of the East Bay SPCA’s available animals on beer can labels as possible,” Ale Industries CEO Yunyi Zhang said. “Our goal is to create awareness of how many adorable animals there are waiting at the East Bay SPCA, and how the community can help. We’re hoping this helps drive adoptions and also highlights other available animals.”

Each of the 20 unique labels contains a QR code that leads to an adoption webpage with details on the featured pet.

Ale Industries, Oakland’s longest-running brewery, has done a number of collaborations with Oakland and Bay Area organizations and individuals, including Oakland Pride, Black Joy Parade, Cat Town Cafe, Oakland Zoo, Oakland Roots, Oakluv, Grammy-winning artist Fantastic Negrito and the band Death Angel. The animal welfare collaboration with Cat Town Oakland sold out in a single day.

“Our team clearly has a soft spot for furry creatures,” said Jonathan Acosta Rosales, director of marketing and distribution. “We’ve been incredibly fortunate to work alongside organizations that commit to the welfare of animals in our community. This East Bay SPCA project opens the door for us to build from here and help these organizations on a more consistent basis.”