Pets for many people these days are a luxury they can no longer afford.

As a result, some try to find a "good home" for their beloved dog or cat and some just let them go stray.

If you go to the pets postings on Craigslist on any given day, you can find dozens of new posts for free pets to adopt.

It can make it hard to pick just which dog or cat might be the right fit for you.

The city of Marionville though is trying to make its stray dogs at the pound jump off the computer screen with startling, yet honest posts.

After a month of searching Craigslist for a beagle, Brett Adams finally found what he was looking for.

He adopted a young beagle mix girl, he has since named Penny.

"First night she was very timid, very scared, roamed around everywhere, sniffing, but she's definitely warmed up the past couple days," Adams said.

So how did Penny stand out from the pack of beagles up for grabs on Craigslist?

"I typed in beagle, and this ad popped up that said pup scheduled to die, and I couldn't let her go," Adams said.

It was a post the city of Marionville put up to attract people to adopt stray dogs at its pound.

State law only requires the city keep the dogs for five days before putting them down.

"I hate to see any of them put down, so we do try very hard, and we don't put very many down at all. We have a pretty good success rate, but it is the truth. I am being honest. We can't keep them all, and if they aren't adopted out after we've tried a long time, they might have to be put down," Marionville Deputy Clerk Kathy Urschel said. "Their spirit gets broken when they're left in those cages alone for days and weeks on end. Their spirit gets broken, and they're not always same animal."

The death sentence posts are a new tactic. After just one day of being on Craigslist, Adams adopted Penny, so it seems to work.

That leaves just one more dog at the pound needing a home.

A black terrier mix has been at the pound for about a month, and as the latest Craigslist post indicates, "the clock is ticking."

Though, the city hopes it's new Craigslist approach will continue to work, as it did for Adams and his new pal Penny.

"Pulling at people's heartstrings. It's a marketing technique, and it worked," Adams said.

The pound gets about 30 to 50 dogs a year which the city tries to get adopted, but says that isn't always a possibility.

When someone adopts a dog from the pound, they can get a voucher to get the dog spayed or neutered and for the parvo and rabies vaccine.

UPDATE: Someone has adopted the black terrier mix.