In midtown Tucson, there’s a new effort underway to help the crisis in our animal shelters. When the shelters are as full as they are, dogs get stressed, and when they’re not on their best behavior, they become less likely to get adopted.
That’s why the group Tucson Rescue Now is partnering with the Pima Animal Care Center to try and turn things around. They just opened their new location at Swan and Grant, right next to Trader Joe’s. When you walk in, you’ll quickly notice how different it feels from a shelter. That’s what the director, Bonny Harris set out to create.
“They have this wonderful new indoor play yard, and that gives us an opportunity for the dogs to have some really great off-leash time, as well as do some training,” Harris said. “When a dog meets a potential adopter or foster, if they have a resident dog, they can do meet and greets here as well. So it gives us a lot more opportunities to work with the dogs individually.”
Four days a week, volunteers pick up six or seven dogs from PACC in the morning, and bring them to Tucson Rescue Now on their big red bus. After four hours, they take them back the same way.