Arkansas PAW

10/16/2026

Two dogs need a temporary home, Texarkana area

Here's Zeus (black) and McGee (brown); their family needs a safe place for them and would like to find someone near Texarkana so that they remain close.

Both are fixed and vaccinated (per the owner)
Both are good with children
No history of biting
Zeus is fine with small dogs but isn’t the best with large dogs

If you're interested in fostering or in boarding, please get in touch with us and we'll match you with the family.

10/06/2026

New global study: Countries with cats = happier citizens. Researchers found that of 93 countries they studied, the more felines a place had, the more likely it was to be happy.

So why are authorities fining caretakers in cities across the country and banning feeding stations? Why are we criminalizing our companions and rounding up strays?

Cats are part of a happy community. Period. A community that protects its cats is a community that protects itself. 🦴❤

10/05/2026

🎵 NATURAL STATE - TIN ROOF TNR 🎵

[Intro - banjo, washboard, shouted]
One, two, three, four, Arkansas!

[Verse 1]
From the Ozark hollers to the Delta mud,
There's a cat in the barn and a cat in the flood,
Born in the weeds by the old rail line,
Nobody's pet, but they're somebody's kind.
They call it "nuisance," they call it "stray,"
Then a county truck hauls the problem away.

[Pre-Chorus]
But a tin-roof porch and a bowl of feed
Never hurt nobody, that's all they need.

[Chorus - gang vocals]
Natural State, show your heart!
Natural State, do your part!
Trap, neuter, vaccinate, let 'em be,
No Kill Arkansas, set 'em free!

[Verse 2]
Fayetteville feeders in the winter sleet,
Delta farm wives with a bowl of meat,
Hot Springs, Harrison, Pine Bluff too,
Folks got a heart and they know what to do.
Mamas on the porch with a can and a spoon,
Feeding the family under the Arkansas moon.

[Pre-Chorus]
So a tin-roof porch and a bowl of feed
Never hurt nobody, that's all they need.

[Chorus - gang vocals]
Natural State, show your heart!
Natural State, do your part!
Trap, neuter, vaccinate, let 'em be,
No Kill Arkansas, set 'em free!

[Instrumental Break - fiddle and banjo breakdown, jug solo]

[Bridge - spoken, half-time stomp]
Don't ban the feeding, don't pass the kill,
Ain't no cruelty ever paid a bill.
Mayors, judges, county boards, hear our holler:
A No Kill town is worth more than a dollar!

[Verse 3]
Spay it, fix it, tag the ear,
Bring the clinic, bring it here,
Shelter doors swing open wide,
Saving lives is bona fide.
Neighbors working side by side,
Arkansas pride with nothing to hide.

[Final Chorus - double time, everybody shouts]
Natural State, show your heart!
Natural State, do your part!
Trap, neuter, vaccinate, let 'em be,
No Kill Arkansas, set 'em free!

[Outro - slow, banjo alone, then crash]
Not one more kill. Not in our state.
Arkansas. Let 'em live.

09/30/2026

We're welcoming all those who have just joined us. USA PAW has now reached 115,000 followers

09/30/2026

Feeding bans do not deter cats from the streets, they only force them to be more elusive and desperate in their search for food. That is not a deterrent, that is just cruelty with a mandate.

Look at the difference it makes when caretakers are not only allowed but encouraged to do their job. The cats are spayed/neutered, fed regularly, and the whole colony thrives. Fighting decreases, roaming ceases, and fewer kittens are born under difficult conditions. This is the pattern that has been observed in all cases where it has actually been tried.

The ones who were putting the food out were not the issue. The ones who drew up the ordinances were, and ordinances never cancel themselves out; someone needs to make life unpleasant for those who passed them in the first place.

Our objective is straightforward in that we want cats to stay healthy and to live out full lives, thanks to consistent access to food and medical care. Each spay or neuter operation counts as part of that cat's healthcare, and each meal is a form of care rather than a donation. Cats which are secure from the beginning go on to suffer less in later life.

Silence isn't objective; whenever we leave the caretaker to face the difficult situation by themselves, the bad policy wins automatically. Therefore, you should show up; that's the way in which cats change from being hunted to being protected in the eyes of their neighbors.

In practice, this involves having petitions with genuine signatures, having groups present in the council chamber, putting data on the table rather than making guesses, and ensuring that elected officials know that their names are linked to the vote. Once a community has raised enough of a ruckus, the ban becomes far more trouble than it's worth.

Make sure the bowls remain full, and keep turning up.

09/24/2026

At some point in Arkansas, kindness became a legal risk. Put out a bowl of food for a cat no one has claimed, and the fine print lands harder on the person who fed than on anyone who let that cat go hungry in the first place.

The laws of Arkansas do not provide for community cat caretakers and there is no statute that recognizes the practice of TNR. The only relevant law is the rabies law, which defines an "owner" as somebody who "keeps, harbors, or cares for" an animal. According to that same law, a cat described as a stray and which is not vaccinated against rabies is "subject to destruction". When these two points are combined, the person who feeds the cat is the one whom the law makes responsible, while the cat can be killed.

It gets worse at the local level. In parts of Arkansas, feeding can get you fined. Fayetteville's own animal services page tells residents to stop feeding stray and feral cats, and the Humane Society of the Ozarks' county TNR program stops at the Fayetteville and Springdale city limits. Rules change from town to town, and caretakers are left to guess.

Starving a colony doesn't remove it. The suffering cats don't leave. They spread out, move into more dangerous areas, and search harder for anything to eat. That is cruelty with a mandate.

TNR constitutes healthcare; a cat that has been sterilized, vaccinated, and fed according to a schedule is one that is being looked after by someone. When colonies are established, the cats cease roaming from block to block in search of scraps. This stability is a result of properly looking after the cats and leads to fewer of them ending up in shelters in Arkansas where they can be killed.

The caretakers were never to blame; it was the ones who drew up the rules. Arkansas already has an example of how bad rules can be altered: Fort Smith's ordinance states that people who carry out TNR are not regarded as owners. Each city and county in Arkansas could take the same action, and the General Assembly could amend the state definition which converts a caretaker into an 'owner'.

Silence isn't neutral. When people stay home, the bad policy wins automatically. Show up to city council and quorum court meetings. Bring petitions with real signatures and the actual statutes on the table. Make sure elected officials know their names are attached to the vote. That is how "hunted survivors" become "protected residents."

Make sure the bowls remain full, and keep caring.

09/09/2026

Arkansas animal control officers out hunting and trapping cats to kill: it has to stop. The "catch and kill" method still being used in some of our state's counties is expensive, inhumane, and ineffective. Killing healthy and treatable cats is morally wrong, and logically, it's completely unnecessary. We must reject this cruelty and leave it in Arkansas's past.

The answer is Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). Low-cost, high-volume spay and neuter access, pet retention programs, and pet food assistance for Arkansas families are crucial parts of the equation too.

But here's what Arkansas caretakers need to understand: even where a city technically allows or tolerates TNR, local public nuisance ordinances almost always override animal welfare policy. Officers will set traps or seize cats directly from a colony. Once an ear-tipped cat gets classified as a "public nuisance" or "at large," its protected status under a local TNR agreement is frequently stripped away on the spot.

Caretakers themselves become targets. In many Arkansas towns, the legal definition of "owner" includes anyone who harbors, feeds, or keeps an animal for as little as 3 to 7 days. Feed a colony, and the city can legally designate you the "owner" of 20+ cats overnight. Once you're labeled the owner, you can be cited for violating pet-limit caps (many towns cap residents at 3-4 pets), failing to produce rabies proof for every single cat, or violating leash/at-large laws. These citations carry heavy fines; and the threat of thousands of dollars in penalties is used explicitly to force caretakers to stop feeding, or to justify removing the colony entirely. When cats vanish into municipal systems after a sweep, they rarely reappear on public shelter dashboards, because they're often processed under different protocols altogether.

This isn't romanticizing TNR. It's acknowledging that the fight isn't just "TNR vs. catch-and-kill;" it's caretakers vs. a legal system quietly engineered to punish the people trying to help. Successful No Kill communities don't just permit TNR on paper; they protect caretakers from being weaponized against, leave population management to compassionate community caregivers, and save shelter space for animals truly in crisis.

Demand better for your Arkansas community. Call your county judge, your city council, your local animal control department, and demand caretaker protections, not caretaker prosecution; while we continue to fight for statewide TNR protections. Support TNR.

We don't need cat hunters in Arkansas. We need TNR warriors.

09/06/2026

New stray intakes at Pine Bluff Animal Control. View all stray intakes at the shelter on PawBoost:
https://www.pawboost.com/lost-found-pets?status=101&organizationId=30323&zip=71601&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=shelter_post

09/06/2026