PAWS, the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society, is a 501(c)3, donor-funded division of the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association (PACCA), the City of Philadelphia’s contracted animal control shelter. PAWS is dedicated to promoting public welfare and to saving the lives of Philadelphia’s homeless, abandoned and unwanted animals. Receiving the highest volume of unwanted and unloved animals in the region, approximately 30,000 each year, PAWS is working to end the killing of healthy and treatable pets in the City of Philadelphia.

Historically known for extremely high euthanasia rates, PACCA was once a place where only about 10% of the animals made it back out alive. However, since 2005 when new leadership was brought in and PAWS, the lifesaving division of PACCA, was established, our “save rate” has climbed dramatically and steadily. By the end of 2007, PAWS was saving 60% of the animals who entered our shelter. We will not stop until every healthy and treatable pet in Philadelphia is guaranteed a home.

All financial support for PAWS is used to fund lifesaving activities: adoption and foster care, spay/neuter clinics, low-cost vaccinations, and other community-based programs. These efforts are part of PAWS’ greater endeavor of making Philadelphia a city in which every heathy and treatable pet is guaranteed a home and ultimately returning the City of Brotherly Love to its roots of care and compassion by ending the use of euthanasia as a means of population control for savable pets.

For our address, contact information, hours and directions, please click here.