Shelter dogs and cats are clipping their nails and combing their coats for the up coming Mega Match-a-thon Pet Adoption Event coming in March.  If you’re looking to add a new pet to your family then join Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control for an incredible 2-day pet adoption event that will include special pricing on all adoptable dogs and cats. The shelter will open its adoption center on March 30th and 31st at noon and will remain open until 8 p.m. on both days in hopes of finding homes for all available animals.

Of course if you can't wait for the Mega Match-a-thon, any day is a great day to adopt a pet. Visit our adoption center Monday - Friday from noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday until 7 p.m. or the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. to meet and adopt a wonderful dog, cat, rabbit or small pet waiting for their perfect match.

Mega Match-a-thon is made possible with a special grant from The National American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals® located in New York as an amazing effort to save even more lives during this special two-day event. Check back for more details!

City of Fort Wayne, Ind. – Animal Care & Control Director Belinda Lewis along with Police Chief Rusty York announced a new city initiative called "Home Again" that will allow lost pets with traceable identification to be returned directly to their home.

Animal Care & Control has added mobile computers, retired from the police department, to Animal Control vans, which will provide animal control officers direct access to pet owner information. When a lost pet is found with current, traceable identification the officer will now be able to take the lost pet directly home.

According to Director Belinda Lewis, "The program will enhance the direct return of pets to their homes, save citizens time coming into the shelter and increase life saving opportunities for pets already in our building."

Chief Rusty York along with the police department's mobile support staff worked with the shelter to make the retired police mobile computers available, at a tremendous cost savings. The Controllers Office and Chief Technology Officer for the City assisted with the ancillary requirements of the project.

Lewis stressed that the key to the overall success of the program will be motivating citizens to keep identification tags and microchip information current and registered with the shelter. If identification isn't traceable, we can't send them home again.

With the launch of our new "Home Again" program, we are encouraging pet owners more than ever to purchase a City pet registration tag and be certain to attach the tag to your dog or cat's collar to be worn at all times. We are already seeing a tremendous jump in the numbers of lost animals that have been returned directly home by our officers because the pets were wearing traceable identification. Now that our officers have computers in their vehicles, they can access pet owner information while they are still on the street and make an attempt to bring your lost pet "Home Again". Be sure to call us with your pet's microchip number, so that we have it on file and update your address and phone numbers every year for added protection.