Barks and Mews Gala

City of Fort Wayne, IN – Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control is back with their Barks and Mews Gala to raise funds for their Angel fund!

Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control held its first gala January 11, 2020. Because of its positive outcome, many were looking forward to the following year. However, due to the unforeseen circumstance of COVID-19, it was cancelled.

The 2023 Barks and Mews Gala will be held on Saturday, June 17th at Purdue Fort Wayne Walb Student Union in the International Ballroom. This event will be 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Emceed by WANE 15's Emily Dwire. This year’s gala is a 70’s theme with a dance demonstration and lessons from the Fort Wayne Ballroom Club, dinner and drinks, a silent auction and gift card pull.Be sure to capture the memorable night by stopping at the DigiBooths Selfie Booth!  

On this night, the Fort Wayne Animal Care and control will be honoring the memory of two of their long serving and dearest volunteers by awarding two current volunteers. This is to show the appreciation for the work they do that serves not only the animals, but the shelter and our community.

The Angel Fund helps provide crucial life-saving medical care to shelter animals. Being Northeast Indiana's largest open access shelter, we cannot turn away animals brought to us from Allen County - no matter the condition they are in. Because of this, we utilize our Angel Fund almost daily to help the animals that have no other place to go.

Tickets are now available for purchase. Single tickets are $75, $550 for a table of eight, and donations are welcomed. Click here to purchase your ticket. If one is interested of being a sponsor to the event,  please click here to be a sponsor.

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Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control announces the shelter received a generous grant of $2,500 from a FWACC foster volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous to the public. The donor wants the gift to go towards the Angel Fund and encourages supporters to match the donation during the month of February to bring it to a grand total of $5,000. The Angel Fund helps provide crucial life-saving medical care to shelter animals.

When learning their dog needed surgery, the donor began to save money for the procedure. After some time, they learned surgery was no longer needed; they then decided to donate the money to FWACC.

The donor explains the reason for choosing the shelter is because, “As a foster volunteer, I want to fight back against all the evil and bad in the world. Enough of us doing a little good will add up and make a difference. We just have to do something and start somewhere.”

The donor shares how it can be emotional to see the cases they receive. They want to encourage others to help give back and inform the community how and why the animals need medical assistance.

FWACC hopes this generous donor’s story will inspire the community during the month of February to give love to the shelter’s animals by donating to the Angel Fund. As an open access shelter, FWACC cannot turn away any animal in Allen County for any reason. Oftentimes, animals come to the shelter in great need of medical care and the Angel Fund is their only option to help save their lives.

People can donate to the Angel Fund by clicking here.



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Fort Wayne, IN. – Looking back on 2022, Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control continued to expand its life-saving efforts and develop more ways to be more of a positive resource to the community.

Throughout 2022, FWACC encouraged the community to consider donating to our Angel Fund. The angel fund helps create life-saving options for animals in our care who have advanced medical needs, and one of them was a severely malnourished Siberian Husky named Shadow.

Shadow came to us as a cruelty case at the start of the year and stayed with us until June. Shadow was on IV fluids and a strict feeding plan to help him gain weight and feel healthy again. The day he officially became ours and able to be put up for adoption was a day worth celebrating.

Our Humane Education department hosted their first ever Spring Break One-day Camps in a continued effort to teach children compassion and empathy through animals. The camp was a success. A total of 58 kids learned about dog and cat body language, wildlife safety, pet overpopulation, and how to care for pets along with the expenses.

In June, we were honored to begin our journey with the Black Forest Cat Café – Fort Wayne’s only cat café with adoptable cats from our shelter. This unique environment provided so many benefits for our community and our shelter. Not only did we have more crucial space to put available cats up for adoption, but it also provided our community with a relaxing and safe place to enjoy the therapeutic effects of cats while enjoying delicious homemade pastries and drinks. In only a six-month time frame, the café adopted out almost 200 cats!

A pivotal change occurred in August. Despite our strict disinfecting protocols, an outbreak of feline panleukopenia occurred, a fatal disease most often is very difficult to treat. We had to work together to create ways to keep our cats safe and healthy. This breakout affected our adoption, foster, and intake processes. We are thankful to have a group of proactive and intelligent staff members that worked together to slow the spread of this disease. It was an ongoing battle for the rest of the year.

The shelter completed the Return to Home Challenge in October. To help more animals find their way back home; Animal Control Officers offered free microchipping and vaccines to animals they encountered in the community to help prevent animals coming into the shelter. This initiative was to encourage more pet owners to claim their lost pets from the shelter, the first-time redemption fee was waived all month long.

At the end of the year, we presented our 2023 budget for approval. We are grateful for the support received by the administration, as well as at City Council. They all agreed there was a justifiable need to increase our headcount of staff and create more functional space at the shelter in 2023.

We are your community shelter - here to help you and your pets. FWACC will continue to improve every year with the support of our community; together, we can help as many animals and pet owners as possible.

Visit www.fwacc.org to learn more about Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control.    

Animal Care 2022 Statistics:

  • 12,125 animals (1,105 is wildlife) came to the shelter in 2022
  • 1,857 animals returned to their owners.
  • 1,131 animals surrendered to the shelter by their owners.
  • 477 animals transferred to rescues/other shelters.
  • 1,192 Community Cats returned to colonies.
  • 3,099 animals adopted.
  • 1,514 animals sent to foster homes.
  • 260 active foster families
  • Recruited 99 new Foster Homes
  • 12,439 volunteer hours
  • 167 active volunteers
  • 87 new volunteers
  • 1,473 animals euthanized at owner’s request and for medical or behavioral reasons.
  • $35, 000 grant from PetCo. Love to cover to cost of contractual veterinary services.
  • $37, 328 grant from Orphan Kitten Club to provide additional Foster Program staff
  • $10,000 grant from Latham Foundation to support Humane Education Summer
  • $20,000 grant from Better Cities for pets A MARS PETCARE PROGRAM
  • $10,000 grant from PNC Charitable Trust to support the Angel Fund

Community Outreach Data and Highlights from 2022:

  • Animal Control Officers responded to 20,353 calls for service.
  • Animal Control Officers responded to 2,262 calls of suspected animal cruelty and neglect.
  • Eight offsite adoption locations for adoptable cats that allowed more space in the shelter.
  • FWACC became Bissell Foundation Partner; participated in Empty the Shelter and 103 animals were adopted.
  • FWACC was chosen as the FPCC FCU Strikes for Charity
  • FWACC became a corporate sponsor to Fido’s Forest
  • FWACC became an exclusive partner of Black Forest Cat Cafe
  • 671 children participated in the shelter’s humane education programs.
  • 42.35% of pet owners who made appointments to surrender their pet decided to keep their pet or rehome outside of the shelter after receiving services through FWACC’s pet retention program.

  

Director Amy-Jo Sites

AmyJo

Adoption Lobby Hours:

12:00 - 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
12:00 - 6:00 p.m. Wednesday
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. First Saturday of each month


CLOSED Monday, Saturday & Sunday FOR ADOPTIONS
To submit a pet adoption profile, you must do so 15-minutes before closing to allow sufficient time for processing.


Business Office Hours (lost & found- receiving lobby- citations or other law enforcement concerns):

11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Mon-Fri
CLOSED Saturday & Sunday


Animal Control Officer Assistance
260-427-1244
9am-8pm Monday - Friday
After 8pm, weekend & holidays,
call 260-449-3000

After Hours / Immediate Officer Assistance:
1:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. Emergencies
260-449-3000


General Contact Information:
Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control
3020 Hillegas Road
Fort Wayne IN 46808
260-427-1244
After 8 p.m. and on weekends and holidays, call 449-3000 for assistance.
Fax: 260-427-5514


It is our mission to serve our community in a humane, public safety capacity while working to keep pets with loving families by providing education opportunities and resources or facilitating re-homing or adoption when necessary.

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