Chicago: Our Home, Our Mission.
Jan 16, 2025
On the frontlines saving homeless pets through our partnership with the city pound.
PAWS Chicago and Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC), the city pound, have a 27-year history of working collaboratively to save the lives of Chicago’s cats and dogs.
Chicago, despite being the third-largest city in the U.S., has the lowest municipal animal control budget among major cities, with CACC operating on an annual budget of just $7.17 million in 2023. In the wake of a post-pandemic surge in pet homelessness, the city is experiencing a fast-rising number of cats and dogs entering its facility at the same time the budget is being frozen in place.
In 2024, CACC recorded an intake of 15,262 pets — an 18% increase over 2023 — comprising 7,096 cats and 8,166 dogs.
Unfortunately, CACC's budget and staffing resources have not kept pace with this growing crisis, hindering its ability to address the urgent needs of homeless animals. That’s where PAWS Chicago stepped in with 360@CACC. The program provides a safety net and resources to Chicago’s homeless and at-risk cats and dogs through a robust suite of prevention and lifesaving programs.
The 360@CACC efforts support pets at CACC and revolves around three key pillars: pet owner support to prevent pets from coming in, supporting rescue groups to transfer animals from CACC to their adoption programs, and supporting CACC with their direct adoptions to the public.
Prevention Programs Help Reduce the Number of Homeless Pets
As part of the 360@CACC initiative, PAWS works to prevent animals from entering CACC through targeted Pet Owner Support programs that provide basic care and necessities to keep pets in their homes. “Many pet owners struggle to meet their pets' needs, from food and supplies to vaccinations and medical care. Our programs offer crucial resources to help families overcome these obstacles, ensuring pets remain with their families and out of the shelter system,” added Celene Mielcarek, PAWS Chicago's Head of Program Operations.
In 2024, PAWS successfully kept 123 pets out of CACC through these vital services. But, despite our best efforts, some people are still unable to keep their pets for a variety of reasons: death, job loss, housing issues and more. In those cases, PAWS Chicago works directly with the public to take in pets and divert them from CACC, ensuring they avoid the risk of disease or euthanasia from shelter overcrowding. In 2024, we successfully diverted 135 animals from families directly to PAWS Chicago, preventing them from entering CACC, and giving CACC relief from additional overcrowding.
When Tuba and her seven siblings arrived in the world, their owner was quickly overwhelmed by the challenges of caring for an unexpected litter. Recognizing he needed help, he reached out to PAWS Chicago. Our team stepped in to welcome all eight puppies into our adoption program, where they would find loving homes. But our support didn’t stop there—we also provided spay/neuter surgeries for both parent dogs, ensuring they could remain with their family without the risk of future unplanned litters. By working together, we gave these puppies a chance at a bright future while helping their owners create a more stable and manageable environment for their pets.
PAWS Chicago Reaches Record Transfers and Vital Vet Support for CACC
Pet transfers at CACC to other Chicago shelters and rescue groups is a lifesaving solution for nearly half of the pets who come into CACC. In 2024, PAWS Chicago provided a safe haven for 1,986 animals from CACC, treating them in our state-of-the-art Medical Center before uniting them with new families at the Lincoln Park Adoption Center.
However, not all shelters and rescue groups have robust veterinary services on site. Following the pandemic, veterinary resources across Chicago are stretched thin, which has adversely impacted smaller rescues that do not have veterinarians on staff. By law, homeless pets must be spayed or neutered before adoption. This, in turn, has resulted in 12.8% fewer animals being transferred by other rescues from CACC in 2023.
In fact, many small rescues transferred from out-of-state shelters that could spay/neuter and vaccinate the animals. To remove this barrier that prevented local rescues from saving pets from CACC, PAWS established the Rescue Ready program to encourage CACC transfers. This initiative provides critical medical services, such as spaying, neutering, and vetting – including microchips, vaccines and heartworm tests and FeLV/FIV testing – enabling these organizations to transfer pets from the city pound. In 2024 alone, PAWS spayed/neutered and medically treated 405 animals for rescues that were originally from CACC. Overall, CACC saw transfers increase a remarkable 18.99% in 2024, totaling 7,242 animals, highlighting the collective impact of these lifesaving efforts.
We thank the Rachael Ray Foundation for generously funding the spay/neuter surgeries and vetting for the Big Fix and Rescue Ready programs.
Partnership Brings Hope: PAWS Chicago Boosts CACC Adoptions by 29%
CACC continues to facilitate public adoptions as a volunteer-only program without any budgeted staff position. “CACC is under-resourced, so PAWS Chicago brought a staff member on site to help manage adoption efforts,” explained Mielcarek. In addition, PAWS Chicago adoption counselor volunteers supported CACC adoption events, helping them to send more animals home the day of each event.
One caveat for adoption is that pets need to be medically cleared to go home. Due to city budget cuts affecting all departments, CACC has faced staff reductions and hiring freezes, which have strained their medical team’s capacity to serve incoming pets. This has especially impacted their ability to meet Illinois law, which requires all cats and dogs to be spayed or neutered before adoption. People are trying to adopt but had been waiting weeks for the pet to be spayed or neutered so they could go home.
To address this, PAWS Chicago launched the Big Fix program, where PAWS volunteers transport homeless pets to the PAWS Chicago Lurie Spay/Neuter Clinic. The pets are spayed, vetted, and returned to CACC that afternoon, ready for adoption. “Spaying and neutering pets through the Big Fix is one of the most impactful ways we support CACC adoptions and transfers. Removing the barrier for a rescue or adopter to take an animal that day is significant and helps more animals go home sooner,” added Mielcarek.
In 2024, PAWS spayed/neutered 931 CACC pets through the Big Fix. With this additional PAWS support, CACC performed 3,019 adoptions in 2024, a remarkable 28.6% increase over 2023.
In 2024, PAWS Chicago’s 360@CACC program and partnership with Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) made significant progress in saving animals, even as the number of pets coming into the city pound increased. CACC took in 2,205 more cats and dogs than the previous year—an 18% rise in intake. Despite this surge, 1,875 more animals had a live outcome and were saved when compared with 2023. Unfortunately, the increase in intake also led to 416 more animals being euthanized compared to 2023. Overall, CACC’s save rate improved slightly, rising from 76% in 2023 to 76.79% in 2024, meaning a greater proportion of animals were saved despite these challenges.
As these programs continue to make a 360-degree impact on Chicago’s shelter pets, our goal is for lifesaving to continue to improve in 2025. Together, we are building a stronger community where pets and families stay united, where fewer animals endure the uncertainty of shelter life and where homeless pets in Chicago not only survive but thrive.