Great Falls Animal Shelter Offers Free Pet Name Tag Engraving Ahead of Windstorm

With the National Weather Service Great Falls office forecasting sustained winds of 35 to 55 miles per hour across central and northcentral Montana from late Wednesday evening through Thursday evening, the Great Falls Animal Shelter is offering free engraved pet name tags through March 14 to help keep displaced animals traceable.

The four-day program, which runs through the close of Saturday hours, targets a specific gap that emerges during wind events: damaged fencing, open gates, and frightened animals bolting from yards or homes. Identification tags are one of the quickest ways to reunite lost pets with their owners, and the shelter designed this event to help residents replace tags that may have been lost in recent storms and to ensure pets carry visible identification before the next round of high winds arrives.

The free engraving is not the only service available this week. The shelter is also offering microchipping for $25 during the same period, providing permanent identification that can assist in returning pets home if collars or tags are lost. A microchip offers a backup that survives what a tag cannot, which matters considerably when gusts are predicted to exceed the sustained 35 to 55 mph range the weather service outlined.

The wind event's reach is already visible elsewhere in Great Falls. Great Falls Public Schools relocated some Lincoln Elementary students after wind blew off part of the school's roof, a reminder that the forecast's 12 to 18 hour window of high-speed winds carries real structural consequences.

Walk-ins are welcome at the shelter throughout the promotion. Hours this week run Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 12 to 4:30 p.m., Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., making today, the final day of the program, accessible for anyone who has not yet come in.