This holiday season, be the light they're looking for
Dec 16, 2025
The holidays are a time when many of us look for ways to make the world a little kinder — to offer warmth where there is cold, hope where there is fear, and love where it’s needed most. For Chicago’s homeless pets, that kindness can mean the difference between life and loss. And this season, your compassion has never mattered more.
Across the city, homeless dogs and cats are struggling to survive winter’s bitter wind, icy streets, and long nights without shelter. But the crisis at Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) has made their fight even more desperate. From January through November, intake surged from 14,094 pets in 2024 to 16,543 in 2025 — a 17% increase. CACC is overcrowded, resources are stretched thin, and even healthy, loving animals face the unthinkable: euthanasia simply because there isn’t enough space.
But standing between these pets and heartbreak is a lifesaving solution our supporters make possible: PAWS Chicago’s 360@CACC program.
This comprehensive initiative eases the pressure on CACC by supporting animals at every stage of their shelter journey. We transfer vulnerable pets to PAWS and partner rescues. We support on-site adoptions at CACC to move pets into loving homes faster. And we provide pet owner support — from spay/neuter to resources and counseling — to help keep families and pets together.
Your generosity fuels lifesaving action at every step of an animal’s journey. You help transfer vulnerable pets to PAWS and rescue partners before time runs out. You help increase adoptions directly at CACC. And you help families in crisis keep their pets, preventing them from entering the shelter system at all.
And it’s working. CACC adoptions are up 20% year over year — from 2,748 in 2024 to 3,296 in 2025. And, PAWS continues to be CACC’s number one transfer partner. Through November this year, we transferred 1,836 pets from CACC into our program.
Thank you for helping vulnerable animals survive, heal, and find safety this year. As winter roars on, please continue standing with them — through the holidays and into 2026. Every gift you make right now will be matched—dollar for dollar—up to $45,000 through the You Give, They Live Match! That means twice the medicine, twice the surgeries, twice the second chances, thanks to supporters: Claudia Langman & Thomas Hayes, Frank Swiderski, and in honor of PAWS alum dog Macie.
When you give, they live.