San Francisco's animal control agency is relying on donations to solve an unforeseen problem in the digital age - a shortage of newspapers needed for potty training puppies.

It seems digital newspaper subscriptions and smartphones have cut the once abundant supplies of old newsprint.

Animal Care & Control has been relying on public contributions and San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/XLirUN ) donations to line the cages of shelter puppies that still aren't trained.

Now, the San Francisco Public Library is donating old newspapers to make sure the shelter has a consistent paper stream.

Animal control will pick up the newspapers twice a month.