If you spot a few animal lovers getting a bit chunky this month, thank them. They're likely the ones indulging on old-fashioned sugar cookies from the Flying Star Café and supporting homeless animals at the same time.

The Railyard District restaurant is donating $1 of each logo cookie it sells through April to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society. This is the first year the restaurant has included the local shelter in its "Buy a cookie, save a pet" campaign.

The cookies sell for $2.09 each.

The popular program has raised $109,000 for Albuquerque's Animal Humane since it started six years ago, said Jean Bernstein, who founded the restaurant chain with her husband, Mark, in 1987 in the city's Nob Hill District. For the past several years, the program's goal has been to reach $25,000.

That goal was relatively easy to meet in the past, and it even hit $35,000 in 2008, but last year was difficult, she said. This year, several partners have bowed out of the campaign, but Bernstein said she's committed to hitting the goal, even if it means she'll pitch in to make up the difference.

In Santa Fe, with only one restaurant (unlike the eight in the Albuquerque area) the goal is relatively modest, $5,000. But Bernstein, an animal-welfare advocate who serves on the board of Animal Humane, hopes to build awareness of the program and of the Santa Fe shelter through the campaign.

The program is well-promoted in the restaurant, but few people have heard about it on the street, said Courtney Gatewood, one of the restaurant's managers. But the word is spreading.

"We're hoping it will catch on this year and next year will be an even bigger success," she said. "You can have something sweet and help out a good cause. They've been really successful in Albuquerque, so we're hoping to almost compete with that."

A "Bone-A-Meter" — a clear plastic tube filled with dog biscuits — measures the success of the program at the restaurant. A chalkboard outside the restaurant also promotes the program, along with several plates of cookies along the counter.

Several area businesses have bought dozens of the cookies in support of the shelter, said Mary Martin, the shelter's executive director. Aside from at the restaurant, 500 Market St., cookies are also available at the shelter, at the shelter's thrift store, Look What the Cat Dragged in, 2570 Camino Entrada, and Toy Auto Man, 4774 Airport Road.

The large, buttery cookies are delicious, said Claudia Inoue of Toy Auto Man. The business quickly went through 15 cookies, selling some and giving many away. She'll get a fresh batch on Monday, she said.

Bernstein said the company targets only a couple of community partners for donation programs, instead of contributing smaller amounts to many groups. Aside from Animal Humane, the chain also raises funds for The Storehouse, the state's largest food pantry.

Bernstein said she hopes to work with a Santa Fe food pantry in the future, but for now the focus is in the Santa Fe shelter.

Animal welfare work is often a "heady" issue, Bernstein said, but the cookie promotion helps make it "sweeter and more palatable."

The restaurant's hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, call the café at 505-216-3939.