This New Jersey pizzeria is using its boxes to help find missing pets

When customers order a pizza from Angelo’s Pizza in Matawan, New Jersey, they get more than just a tasty pie. The pizzeria’s boxes are also adorned with photos of missing pets from the area.

John Sanfratello, the pizzeria’s owner, came up with the idea after seeing a flyer for a missing cat. He realized that he had a great opportunity in his business to spread awareness in the community about people who had lost their beloved pets.

“Growing up, we used to have missing children on milk cartons,” he told “Good Morning America.” “Why can’t the pizza box be the milk carton of today, but for animals?”

To get their lost pet featured on a pizza box from Angelo’s, all a pet owner has to do is drop off a flyer at the restaurant, and they’ll take care of the rest. Sanfratello says they don’t care if the concerned pet owner is a customer or not.

On July 11, they took their Facebook page to let people know about the free service:

“Anyone in the Matawan/Aberdeen area who has a missing pet can drop off flyers for us to place on all our pizza boxes,” read the post. “No charge.”

The post has now been shared more than 1,500 times. People everywhere were impressed by the kind and creative gesture.

“I guess because pet owners really love their pets,” Sanfratello told NBC’s “Today” of his idea’s popularity. “Pets are family members.”

Here’s what a flyer looks like on the pizza box, as posted to the Angelo’s Pizza Facebook page:

Other businesses have already replicated the practice, including Little Cupcake Bakeshop, a bakery and cafe with locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, owned by Sanfratello’s cousin, and two outposts of La Forchetta Ristorante in Florida, owned by Sanfratello’s sisters.

No pets have been reunited with their owners as a result of Sanfratello’s efforts just yet. But with hundreds of pizzas delivered daily, he’s confident that some furry friends will find their families soon.