Uber delivering kittens in Australia as part of UberKittens promotion

A TECH giant is delivering kittens to workplaces all around Australia. That’s right, your very own adorable kitten to play with for 15 minutes. We dare you to resist.

WHAT does Uber have to do with adorable baby cats, you ask?

Well, the ride-sharing business has teamed up with cat shelters in six cities across the country to have kittens delivered to their offices. That’s right, cute kittens.

The UberKittens promotion will run today from 12pm to 4pm in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Geelong and the Gold Coast.

Uber customers can order a ‘Kitten Car’ through the app and for $40, a kitten will come play with your for 15 minutes. But you’d probably want to get in quick as Uber has warned there will be high demand so there may not be enough kittens to go around.

In Sydney, there will be 15 kittens and they all come with handlers from local cat shelters.

All the money from the promotion will be donated to the cat shelters involved in each city.

The promotion had previously run in New York City and Uber had also rolled out a puppy-based one last week in 10 American cities to coincide with the Super Bowl.

Yep, they’re super cute.

In Sydney, Uber’s partner in the promotion is the Cat Protection Society of NSW in Newtown. Kristina Vesk, from the shelter, said when the Society was approached, they thought it would be a fun way to promote feline welfare. She called it “mobile kitten therapy”. She said only kittens that are sociable and comfortable around people are being used in today’s promotion.

There’s also a chance that if you become attached to the kittens, you’ll be able to take them home — not straight away but you can certainly follow up with the shelter.

Reams of studies have pointed to the benefits of pets on humans, including stress alleviation and morale.

Just chillin’.

Which brings us around to why a controversial tech company who’s disrupting the traditional taxi industry is delivering kittens — it’s a marketing and customer acquisition play. But when there are adorable kittens involved, who cares?

And yes, the kittens came to the news.com.au office. They were amazing.

Originally published as Uber delivering kittens in Australia as part of UberKittens promotion