PIMA COUNTY, AZ - Pima Animal Care Center’s nonprofit partner, Friends of PACC, is offering free customized ID tags to all adopters, fosters, and existing pet owners to help keep pets with the families who love them.

Beginning Dec. 21, Friends of PACC, in partnership with Central Pet, will offer free customized identification tags bearing the pet’s name and phone number for their owner.

The new visible ID tag offer will be available year-round to anyone who adopts, fosters, or reclaims a pet from PACC as well as to any member of the public who needs a visible ID tag for their pet. There is no required purchase or limitation on the number of tags an individual can claim. To redeem, interested folks should come to PACC’s on-campus Central Pet store any time during PACC’s operating hours.

Monica Dangler, PACC’s Director of Animal Services, said getting pets back home without coming to the shelter is the best way to impact the number of pets at PACC.

“The quickest and easiest way to get a pet back home is by having a visible ID tag on them,” said Dangler. “By putting more tags into the community and continuing to expand PACC’s lost and found programming, we’re hopeful that finders will be able to reunite pets quickly with their families without using shelter resources.”

PACC has faced critical overcrowding since 2021 and commonly houses around 500 dogs at a time. Around 60-70% of dogs who come into PACC arrive as strays. Industry data shows that stray pets that are brought to the shelter have only a 15%-20% chance of being reclaimed by their families.

Laura O’Brien, Friends of PACC’s Board Chair, said the organization hopes that the new effort will ease the shelter’s burden during the upcoming New Year’s holiday.

“An ID tag is a universal symbol indicating a found pet has a family; what better way to get a pet back home as fast as possible?” said O’Brien. “Partnering with Central Pet is an incredible opportunity that we’re excited about, and we thank our Giving Tuesday donors for bringing this idea to fruition.”

PACC is located at 4000 N. Silverbell Road and is open on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from noon to 7 p.m., on Wednesday from 1:30 – 7 p.m., and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. PACC will be closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day, and the shelter will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

To learn more about available PACC pets and services, please go to pima.gov/animalcare. To donate to Friends of Pima Animal Care Center in support of their life-saving work on behalf of PACC pets, please visit friendsofpacc.org.