News Release l July 28, 2020

Parks & Recreation and Animal Services Team Up to Reconnect Lost Pets

The El Paso Parks & Recreation Department and El Paso Animal Services are collaborating to help keep pets in their home and out of the shelter.

Beginning July 28, 2020, five City parks will now have the capability to assist residents who find a lost pet by scanning the animal for a microchip. This collaboration aims at quickly reconnecting lost pets with their owners, preventing the need to bring them to the shelter.

Every year, over 26,000 pets are brought into El Paso Animal Services, and on average only 16 percent of them are reunited with their family. Getting lost pets back to their owners is much more likely to happen if pets can be kept safely in the neighborhood they were found in, rather than them being transported to the shelter, sometimes many miles from their home.

With these Parks & Recreation locations conveniently in neighborhoods, residents have the opportunity to easily scan a lost pet for a microchip. Microchip scanning will be available seven days a week from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Westside Natatorium (West) - 650 Wallenberg Dr.

Officer David Ortiz Skate Park (Mission Valley) - 563 N. Carolina Dr.

Grandview Spray Park (Central) - 3225 Jefferson Ave.

Veterans Swimming Pool (Northeast) - 5301 Salem Dr.

Salvador Rivas Spray Park (Far East) - 12480 Pebble Hills Blvd.

Recently, El Paso Animal Services was selected to be a Tier 1 Human Animal Support Services (HASS) pilot shelter. This new partnership with the Parks and Recreation Department adds another layer of service to the community as one of the elements of the HASS program: Getting Pets Home encourages comprehensive lost pet reunification services.

Available microchip scanning locations can be viewed on the Pet Finder Map, located on the department’s website and on the EP311 mobile app. For more tips on what to do when you find a lost pet, visit www.elpasoanimalservices.org/foundpetresources.

PARKS MICROCHIP SCANNING SITES PSA: Video Link

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Media Contact: Michele Anderson

Public Affairs Coordinator

915.494.3252