TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a $300,000 grant from Petco Love to the Pima Animal Care Center (PACC).
In an effort to give every animal a home, PACC will use a part of the funds to create a community outreach lost-and-found team, further helping save the lives of our furry friends across Pima County.
Monica Dangler, PACC's director of animal services, says they'll use half of the two-year, $300,000 grant this year. PACC is going to better market "Petco Love Lost", a new program they started using a year ago. It's a reporting system using facial recognition technology.
"It magically matches the dogs together if we have both a lost and found report," Dangler said. "So, you can then communicate with the owner or the finder of the pet."
PACC is a life-saving shelter which, in part, helps the local pet industry grow.
"Well we also see that ripple effect in the economy with more pet industry-related businesses opening whether its doggy daycares," Dangler said. "Pet stores or groomers."
PACC will target five zip codes across Pima County with the highest number of strays.
"We have less interaction and less people are reclaiming from those zip codes and that's 85706 and 85713," said Dangler.
Dangler says pet owners should look out for their free microchip events next month as the 4th of July gets closer.
Information about Petco Love Lost in Tucson can be found here.
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Jacqueline Aguilar is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9. Born and raised in Yuma, AZ., she is no stranger to the unforgiving Arizona heat. Now this U of A wildcat is excited to be back in Tucson and is looking forward to involving herself in the community. Share your story ideas with Jacqueline by emailing jacqueline.aguilar@kgun9.com or connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
