BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Following the May 26 storms, many Northwest Arkansas animal shelters have overflowed with pets after taking in strays.
Best Friends Pet Resource Center (PRC) in Bentonville told 5NEWS it has taken in nearly 20 dogs from the Humane Society for Animals and Bentonville Animal Services to allow more space for the influx of displaced pets.
The PRC has also been focused on supplying resources to other shelters and people in the community who have been impacted by storms.
Best Friends NWA Senior Director of Lifesaving Services, Ali Paepke, said the shelter’s community outreach team worked with local groups to donate 15,000 pounds of pet food to those in need.
“We had 14 different volunteers deliver food to 20 different individuals that were impacted by the storms that needed food for their pets, which ended up serving over 100 animals that needed pet food,” Paepke said.
While overcrowded shelters encourage people to adopt shelter pets, Paepke said another concern is reuniting lost pets with their owners.
If you find a lost pet, she said the fastest way to find its owner is to scan the pet to see if it has a microchip. Best Friends also encourages people to use social media to help locate the owners of lost pets.
“There's a lot of lost and found animal pages in Northwest Arkansas on Facebook especially,” Paepke said. “If you find a pet and you're in that crunch period where you know you can hang on to them for a little bit of time, scan for a microchip [and] get them posted.”
She added Best Friends has seen success stories of animals being reunited with their owners through these pages.
“Last week, there was a guy who brought a husky in that he had found following the storms that didn't have a microchip or anything, but … I think the animal within less than 12 hours had been reunited with its owner because they posted and we're able to make those connections.”
Best Friends strongly encourages pet owners to get their pets microchipped, especially as the storm season continues.
The PRC offers free microchip and vaccine clinics every Wednesday morning from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm.
To help with the current demand on local animal shelters, the PRC is holding a Super Adoption Event on Saturday, June 15, and Sunday, June 16, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with up to 500 pets from local shelters.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.