More than 10,000 Metro Nashville-Davidson County pets were displaced in 2017. Metro Animal Care and Control (MACC) reported that 2,053 pets were surrendered to their shelter by their owners. They took in another 3,733 stray/at large pets last year with only 1,207 of these being returned to their owners. This resulted in a total of 4,579 homeless pets passing through MACC. Nashville Humane Association states on their website that they re-home more than 4,020 pets each year for a total of AT LEAST 8,600 animals passing through these two shelters alone. Add to this figure, all of the countless pets being rehomed by their owners via Craigslist and social media, as well as the dozens of other animal rescue agencies in our community. We conservatively estimate at least 10,000 displaced pets in Nashville each year.

Help Us Help Them

One of the most common reasons cited by surrendering pet owners is that they can no longer afford to properly care for them. By offering a helping hand to these pet owners, we feel that we will be able to assist them in getting over their financial hump, and keeping pets in a loving home.


There is currently only one small and extremely limited community pet food bank program in Davidson County. While they are meeting some need, Nashville Humane Association's Darcy Lashinsky Memorial Food Bank does not adequately meet the needs of our community for some of the following reasons:

• They only provide assistance to those families already receiving government assistance.
• They only distribute food 2 times per month for only a 2 hour window per distribution.
• They only distribute 3-5lb bags of food per family per month, which only provides a few days' worth of food.

Pet Assistance Network has a less restrictive qualification requirement which enables families in transitional periods to get through rough patches with their entire family being properly cared for. We also distribute per pet...this enables us to provide enough pet food and supplies to keep each pet in the family fed and cared for over a longer period of time, requiring less frequent distributions to the same families. This also makes it easier for families with limited (or no) means of transportation to have access to our program. And, for most people, asking for help is difficult, so these less restrictive qualifications mean that more people will reach out for assistance. Our pet food bank program alleviates the stress associated with frequent distributions, while also allowing us to conserve time and volunteer resources to service more people over a larger area of Davidson County. Swallowing ones pride can be difficult enough, so we are conscientious of how this can affect people who struggle to ask for help. We want everyone to feel comfortable utilizing our program without feeling that they are being judged.


If you are in need of help with pet food or supplies, please contact us. If you would like to learn more about how you can help, please click here.