A six-month pilot program from Dallas Animal Services and Best Friends Animal Society aims to reunite stray pets with their families right there in the neighborhood — before they ever set paw in a shelter
Free tags, collars, and lost-pet flyers available now through Dallas Animal Services. Six-month pilot targeting neighborhoods where strays turn up most often. Visit BeDallas90.org to learn more.
Well neighbor, if you’ve ever had that stomach-drop moment of realizing the back gate was open and the dog is gone — you know exactly what this news is worth. Dallas Animal Services and Best Friends Animal Society just teamed up on a new pilot program built around one simple goal: get lost pets home before they end up in the shelter system. And they’re kicking it off by handing out 2,000 free PetHub ID tags to Dallas pet owners at no cost.
Here’s the idea, and it’s a smart one. Every tag comes with a unique QR code. If your dog or cat gets loose and a neighbor finds them wandering the street, all they have to do is scan the tag with their phone. That scan connects them straight to you — no shelter trip, no waiting, no wondering. The tags are designed to work not just for neighbors but for animal control officers and shelter staff in the field, so a lost pet can get home the same afternoon they got out. The program is targeting the areas of Dallas where strays turn up most often, but the goal is bigger than any one zip code: keep pets where they belong, which is at home with their families.
Along with the tags, the program is handing out free dog collars, lost-pet flyer templates, and other resources to help residents both prevent runaways and act quickly when one happens.
“Communities play a vital role in helping lost pets get home,” Sophia Proler, Director of the South Central Region of Best Friends Animal Society, said in the announcement. “By providing PetHub ID tags and focused, neighborhood-based resources, Best Friends and Dallas Animal Services are making it easier for residents, field officers, and animal services staff to work together to reunite pets with their families and help them stay safely at home.”
Here’s why this matters more than it might sound at first. Lost pets make up a huge chunk of shelter intake nationwide, and a lot of those animals are healthy, well-loved family pets who ended up behind a kennel door for one reason only — no visible ID and no easy way for the person who found them to make the connection. A quick QR-code scan on a collar tag skips all of that. It’s the difference between “we found your dog at the corner of Elm and Third” and “your dog spent five days in the shelter before you got the call.”
“This partnership gives pet owners practical tools to help ensure their pets can be identified and returned home quickly if they become lost,” Paul Ramon, Director of Dallas Animal Services, said in the announcement. “By equipping residents with resources and empowering communities to assist with reunification efforts, we can help keep more pets with their families and reduce the number of animals entering the shelter.”
Dallas city leadership is behind the effort too. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert called the partnership a strong example of what happens when city services and nonprofit partners pool their resources around a shared goal. “As our city continues to expand partnerships across every area of service, this collaboration is a great example of how working together strengthens our resources, helps reduce shelter capacity, and reunites lost pets with their families more quickly,” Tolbert said. “We’re grateful for this opportunity as a city, and we encourage our community to take full advantage to help keep their furry family members safe, secure, and at home.”
The pilot runs six months. That’s your window. If you’ve got a dog, a cat, or both — and you don’t already have a solid ID tag on their collar — this is the moment. Two thousand free tags is a lot, but Dallas is a big city, and once they’re gone they’re gone. Grab one, put it on your pet before you set the phone down, and give yourself the peace of mind that comes with knowing anyone who finds them can bring them straight back to you.
For more information about the program, tag pickup locations, and other pet resources — from adoption to foster to lost-pet reporting — visit BeDallas90.org.
So take five minutes today, neighbor. Order the tag, put it on the collar, snap a fresh photo of your pet just in case, and rest easy. Your furry family member will thank you the next time that back gate blows open in a summer thunderstorm.
