Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (MCACC) is facing a shortage of shelter capacity.

The shelter currently houses 855 animals in 755 kennels. This means that some dogs will have to share space in one of his kennels, while others will have to split the kennel into two for him.

While all shelter staff, including management members and leadership teams, assist with morning and afternoon feedings and cleaning kennels, the MCACC is also coming up with innovative solutions to address this crisis. Ultimately animal homelessness is a community issue and requires community support.

“We cannot address this within the shelter system alone.We need direct support from the community where animal homelessness starts.So we are doing everything we can to work with the community.” MCACC director Michael Mendel said.

What MCACC is currently doing:

• Adoption fees waived for most animals and free adoption events scheduled through 2022
• Reuniting with a lost pet. 3 months now, Back to Owner Assistance The program helps reunite owners and pets facing financial hardship. This program helps cover shelter costs such as boarding, spay/neuter, license and rabies vaccination.

Beginning July 1st, the program will help:

• Animals returned to owners: 149 Animals (July: 83 Animals, August: 66 animal)
• Sterile animals with RTO subsidies: 102 Animals (July: 56 Surgery, August: 46 surgery)
• We have added 50 temporary kennel spaces outside of MCACC’s West Shelter facility and installed evaporative coolers to make the dogs as comfortable as possible.

Maricopa County Residents Can:

Communities must exhaust all options before making an appointment to bring a stray animal to a shelter.

It has been proven that the fastest way to reunite owned pets starts with neighborhood methods such as posting paper flyers and local social media pages.

• Take any stray animal you find to your local veterinarian for a microchip scan. If the pet is missing, the reunion process will begin.
• add pet MCACC’s Lost & Found Interactive Pet Map
• If your pet is not missing, call 602-506-PETS to make an appointment for a lost pet’s pick-up.
• To help directly, please consider the following: Volunteer activity work directly in the shelter
• If you have the ability to raise shelter animals at home, Be a Hero – Foster Today | Maricopa County, ArizonaOr use another reputable animal welfare organization.
• Stop this problem at its root by donating to local animal welfare organizations that offer free or low-cost spawning/neutering, microchipping, and licensing activities.