Anderson Cooper Meets (and Cuddles) Comfort Dogs After Las Vegas Shooting: ‘They Help a Lot of People’

Anderson Cooper is opting for a bit of puppy comfort in the wake of the devastating shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night.

The 50-year-old CNN anchor on Wednesday shared a pair of sweet Instagram photos of his meeting with a group of comfort dogs who headed to Las Vegas after the shooting.

“So happy to run into a group of @comfortdogs outside a hospital in #LasVegas,” Cooper captioned a photo of himself cuddling one of the dogs. “Met this group first in #Newtown and they help a lot of people who are grieving and in need.”

The Illinois nonprofit organization, Lutheran Church Charities, also uploaded photos of the meeting, including one shot that showed Cooper and owner Tim Hetzner surrounded by the pooches.

“Thank you for taking the time to say hi,” officials captioned the pictures.

The K-9 Comfort dogs left for Las Vegas on Monday following the attack that left 58 people had been killed and 527 more were injured, according to a Facebook post from the organization.

The therapy dogs visited with staff and shooting victims at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, WJILA reports.

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The dogs have provided some much-needed comfort to those affected after 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on thousands at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Sunday night.

Police said Paddock fired down onto a crowd of more than 22,000 people just after 10 p.m. on Sunday from his 32nd-floor hotel room at the nearby Mandalay Bay casino. According to authorities, the gunfire continued off and on for about nine to 11 minutes.

Paddock was found dead in his room of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before midnight, as law enforcement closed in.