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Memphis Animal Services and Memphis Fire Department announced today that they have partnered to offer a new service to citizens with “Fire Finders,” a grant-funded program "Fire Finders" program that provides pet microchip scanners for every MFD fire station.

A microchip is a small, electronic chip implanted into a pet so that, if found and scanned with a microchip scanner, the owners will be notified and reunited with their pet. If a citizen finds a pet and wants to have it scanned for a chip, they can take it to an animal shelter or a vet clinic, but there are a number of “veterinary deserts,” or areas where there are no vet clinics. Citizens who find a pet in those neighborhoods may have no access to scan a pet for a microchip. 

“Every pet should have a microchip, but what we found was that not all of our citizens had the same access to getting microchips or scanning found pets for microchips” said MAS Director Alexis Pugh. “We’re solving half of that problem with the Fire Finders program, and we are working on solutions for bringing more microchip access to the community in the future.”

The new “Fire Finders” program, funded by a Maddie’s Fund Innovation Grant, provides better service to citizens by enabling citizens to have found pets scanned for a microchip at one of Memphis’s 58 fire stations, which are conveniently located near every neighborhood in the city.

“Our fire department is one of very few in the nation providing this service to citizens,” said Memphis Fire Director Gina Sweat. “We’re thrilled to continue partnering with MAS to bring innovative solutions like this one to Memphis, without increasing the taxpayer burden.”

Fire personnel will be trained on how to scan pets and research the chip to determine ownership. Memphis Fire Department will not take possession of found pets in the event no owner can be located. Citizens who wish to surrender found pets may do so at Memphis Animal Services at 2350 Appling City Cove on Tuesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

MAS ANNOUNCEMENTS

	Anthony & Bobo: Community Comes Together to Reunite Homeless Artist with His Beloved Dog Anthony is an artist who found himself homeless after some devastating events in his life. He doesn’t have a place to live, and he doesn’t always have food to eat. But he has a best friend, a sweet dog named Bobo. And he always makes sure Bobo has enough to eat. A couple weeks ago, Anthony woke up to find Bobo was gone. He was distressed and immediately contacted friends to help him look for Bobo. They made signs and put them all over town. They talked to the people who knew Anthony and Bobo. When a dog matching Bobo’s description showed up at MAS yesterday, one of our employees, Emily, recognized Bobo immediately! She called the number on the LOST poster, and Anthony’s friend gave him a ride to the shelter within minutes to see Bobo again. [Click here to watch their reunion and learn how you can help them.]
	Memphis Animal Services Completes Cruelty Investigation Training Memphis Animal Services announced today the completion of the National Animal Cruelty Investigations School - Professional Investigator training by its field operations team. [See more]
	Special Shy Cat Looking for Home in #LoveToTheMax Campaign Follow and share his progress on Facebook & Instagram with the #LoveToTheMax hashtag! Max A308238 is a painfully shy cat who had been a long time MAS resident. [See More]
	Mid-South Shelters & Rescues Learn to Save More Lives with Dog Playgroups from Dogs Playing for Life In December, Memphis Animal Services hosted dog playgroup training by Dogs Playing for Life, a non-profit organization that has trained over 230 shelters to incorporate playgroups for dogs into their daily operations, thanks to a grant from Animal Farm Foundation. [See more]
	MAS Surpasses Goal of 7,000 New Beginnings in 2018, Ends 2018 with 88% Save Rate Memphis Animal Services today announced that in 2018 they reached an historic milestone of processing more than 7,000 adoptions and rescue transfers in one year, ending the year at an all-time high 88 percent save rate.  [See more]
	Memphis Animal Services Now Includes Heartworm Treatment in Adoption Fee: Grants, including $61,500 from PetSmart Charities, to fund program Memphis Animal Services recently announced that for the first time in the shelter’s history, they will be including heartworm treatment in their adoption fee for dogs who test positive for heartworms. The shelter says that about half of the adult dogs coming into MAS test positive for heartworms, which is fatal to dogs if not treated. Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, making dogs in the South particularly likely to become infected. Heartworm disease can be prevented by taking regular medication as directed by a veterinarian, but once a dog is infected, treatment can be very expensive. [See more]
	Memphis Animal Services Recognized with Team Excellence Award at City of Memphis Ovation Awards A MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTOR: "Our team at Memphis Animal Services does a very difficult job every day with grace. The exceptional group I have the privilege of working with gives their whole selves to the 8,500 animals that come into the city shelter each year. They bond with each new animal they come into contact with. They rejoice when their animal friends find new homes. They grieve when their favorites don’t make it. And they wake up every day ready to do it all over again, with open hearts and open arms." [See more]
	MAS Partners with Memphis Fire Department for #FirefighterFosters In October, MAS and MFD got together with the pilot of the brand new Firefighter Foster program, which we believe is the first of its kind. Fire Station 20 is the first station to foster a shelter dog, Juice (pictured), until he's ready to go on a transport to a no-kill shelter in another state. We're excited to expand the program to have more fire stations foster shelter dogs! [See more]
	Petco Foundation Invests in Lifesaving Work of Memphis Animal Services Memphis Animal Services announced it has been awarded a $60,000 grant from the Petco Foundation to support its efforts to find homes for heartworm-positive dogs. [See more]
	MAS Shelter Dog in Training to be Service Dog for Veterans Midsouth Canines for Veterans chose Donnelson for the newest addition to their program which trains service dogs for veterans who've been diagnosed with PTSD. [See more]
	MAS Announces New Adoption Fees Thanks to Rachael Ray Save Them All Grant from Best Friends Animal Society Memphis Animal Services has received a Rachael Ray Save Them All grant from Best Friends Animal Society in the amount of $30,000 to reduce adoption fees for large dogs. Thanks to this grant, adoption fees for dogs over 30 lbs. will be indefinitely reduced from $75 to $40, effective October 1. MAS also announced several other updates to their adoption fees: • $40: All dogs over 30 lbs, all adult cats • $20: All pets on the urgent list • $80: All dogs under 30 lbs, puppies under 5 months old, and kittens under 5 months old [See more]
	Big Mac's #FosterFieldTrip One of our wonderful foster families offered to take Big Mac on a field trip to ease his shelter stress. Big Mac went to Shelby Farms, has a spa day at Hollywood Feed, then ended his trip on the Swanky's Taco Shop patio! His field trip foster family says he was an angel! You can see a video of Big Mac here: [See more]
	MAS Announces New Hours Effective August 4th, MAS hours are now 12-4 every day, with extended hours until 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Stray Surrender hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 12-4pm.
	MAS Attends Best Friend Conference  MAS was also recognized with four other shelters across the country making huge strides toward saving all healthy, treatable, and adoptable pets. [See More]
	Deluca's #FosterFieldTrip  Deluca #A305545 had been at the shelter for nearly a month. We were so excited when one of our foster families took him on a field trip! First, Deluca went to Shelby Farms on a nice stroll around the lake! Then he got to go to Hollywood Feed where he had the ultimate spa experience!
	ALSAC Cares Volunteers spent their morning helping out at MAS From laundry to building carriers, they helped out with various everyday task that keep us running! They also learned about the various ongoing volunteer opportunities we have available, got a tour of the shelter, and got some snuggles in with the adoptable dogs!
	MAS Separates Play Yard!  Thanks to donated funds MAS was to separates the big grassy play yard into 6 sections! Previously, we could only have three dogs outside in yards at once, which made it really tough on busy days for adopters to meet dogs. Now, with our 6 grassy yards, 2 dog runs, and 1 cement square yard, we can have NINE DOGS outside at once! [See More]
	MAS Offers a Kitten 2 for 1 Special!  MAS started their Kitten 2 for 1 special this June. Any kittens, up to 6 months old, were only $30!
	Second Annual Tiger Takeover!  For the second year in a row select members of the University of Memphis football team, lead by offensive line coach and run game coordinator, Ryan Silverfield, took over as adoption counselors at MAS on Saturday, June 23. The team helped 20 dogs and cats find their forever homes! [See More]
	$30 Pet Adoptions for Entire Summer!  MAS offers $30 pet adoptions for all animals from June 1st until August 31st, as a part of Save A Shelter Pet Summer!
	It's a Kitten Bonanza! It's kitten season at MAS and we were up to our noses in kittens in need of fosters. We sent out plea after plea for some help, and the community did not disappoint! Over 80 kittens (and a few adults), went out to foster homes! Some were even adopted!
	Human Walking with Baker and Donelson This week MAS was thrilled to partner with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowits, PC downtown for one of out Human Walking events. Our helpful shelter dogs went downtown to Court Square to rescue these office workers from their desks and take them for an afternoon walk. [See More]
	$25 Dog Adoptions MAS offers $25 dog adoptions throughout the month of May
	Memphis Library Animal Adoptathon  MAS teams up with the Memphis Public Libraries for an Animal Adoptathon.
	$30 Pet Adoptions MAS offers $30 pet adoptions for the month of April.
	MAS Sees 182% Increase in Adoptions From June & July Adoption Promotions Memphis Animal Services today announced that their month-to-date save rate is 91 percent and asked for the community’s support to help them maintain that percentage for the rest of the month. [See more]
	MAS Sees 182% Increase in Adoptions From June & July Adoption Promotions Thanks to a partnership with Best Friends Animal Society, Memphis Animal Services offered $10 cat adoptions from June 1-30 and $17.76 pet adoptions from June 25-July 3. Local media really helped get the word out, and Wizard’s donated an ad in the Memphis Flyer, and adopters showed up in droves! There were a total of 265 publicly adopted pets who got new homes under the two adoption promotions, compared to 94 during the same period last year, resulting in a 182% year-over-year increase in adoptions during that period.
	MAS Hosts Tiger Takeover Memphis Animal Services had some special help one Saturday in June: 14 Memphis Tiger football players and their coach, Ryan Silverfield! The players "took over" as adoption counselors for the day, and helped make 24 matches in the two hours they were there! [See more]
	$10 Cat Adoptions MAS Offers $10 Cat Adoptions Through End of June. [See more]
	Neonatal Kitten Nursery Apprenticeship MAS’s Dani Rutherford Awarded Maddie’s® Neonatal Kitten Nursery Apprenticeship at Austin Pets Alive! [See more]
	MAS Takes 20+ Cats from Same Owner Memphis Animal Services today announced that they have taken in 20 cats from a home in midtown, where the owner was evicted and asked MAS to help find his cats good homes. [See more]
	Heartworm Head Start MAS Offers Heartworm Head Start in May [See more]
	M.A.S. Safety Net Program Memphis Animal Services Announces MAS Safety Net Program [See more]
	Essential Oils with Pets Memphis Animal Services Hosts Essential Oils with Pets Class [See more]