PAWS Chicago launches fund to address rise in homeless pets

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As Chicago and the rest of the country face a persistent homeless pet crisis and the rising number of cats and dogs entering shelters continues unabated, PAWS Chicago has launched a Chicago Animal Crisis Fund that will treat and save more homeless and at-risk animals.

In 2023, the city's impoundment facility, Chicago Animal Care & Control, took in 1,198 more dogs and cats than the previous year, leading to a 22.7% increase in euthanasia. It marked the first time more than 2,500 pets had been euthanized at CACC since 2016, and a reversal of hard-won progress in the effort to make Chicago a No Kill city where all healthy and treatable animals are saved. The city pound is a barometer of a community's progress toward saving its most vulnerable animals.

PAWS Chicago, CACC's largest transfer partner, stepped up transfers substantially last summer at the first signs of the crisis, rescuing 38% of the cats and dogs that were transferred out of CACC in 2023 - 695 more pets than the year before. The animals went to the PAWS Chicago Medical Center, located 1.5 miles from CACC in Little Village, and received treatments ranging from upper respiratory infection treatments to orthopedic surgery, until they were healthy and ready to be adopted. If PAWS had not increased intake, euthanasia at CACC would have gone up by 50.6%.

In the first quarter of 2024, intake at CACC went up 22.8% - 608 cats and dogs - over the prior year, and PAWS has continued high-volume animal transfers out of Chicago Animal Care & Control, rescuing 34% of the cats and dogs that were transferred out of CACC in the first quarter, a total of 495 pets.

Donations contributed to the Chicago Animal Crisis Fund will go toward the medical treatments and care of pets transferred from Chicago Animal Care & Control to PAWS Chicago, as well as supportive programs under the PAWS Chicago 360@CACC program umbrella launched in November 2023.

"Normally the first quarter is the slowest intake period of the year, since the cold weather results in fewer births and fewer strays," said Susanna Wickham, CEO of PAWS Chicago. "This year, there has been no reprieve, and we are calling on our animal-loving community to help, because the warm-weather litter season is almost upon us and will bring another wave of vulnerable pets."

To give to the Chicago Animal Crisis Fund, or for more information, visit pawschicago.org/crisisfund.