Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control highlights 2022 successes, setbacks

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control highlights their major successes in 2022, as they say they want to find more ways to become even more of a positive community resource.

FWACC officials say a major part of 2022 was to encourage the local community to donate to the Angel Fund, which they say helps fund life-saving healthcare options for animals who have critical medical needs, including malnourishment.

They say their Humane Education department hosted successful, first-ever Spring Break One-day Camps to teach kids empathy and compassion through animals. The camp, according to officials, also taught kids about animal body language, as well as how to properly care for pets.

FWACC officials also share their journey with Black Forest Cat Café, the only local café with cats adopted directly from the shelter. They say about 200 cats have been adopted by the café since June 2022.

A setback, according to the shelter, came in August of 2022, when there was an outbreak of a deadly feline disease, panleukopenia, which is also hard to treat, and continued to be an issue for the rest of 2022.

A success for the FWACC came at the end of 2022, when they say their proposal for their 2023 budget was approved in order to create more functional space for the shelter and hire more employees.

FWACC shared some statistics and community outreach highlights from 2022:

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 Café
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.