Page 60 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2026

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story by Lynn Lofton and Kimberly Jones photos courtesy of Gulf Coast Community Foundation
A new initiative across South Mississippi will give residents an easy way to help lost pets find their way home.
The Gulf Coast Community Foundation (GCCF) is partnering with animal welfare organizations throughout its six-county service area to install public microchip-scanning stations, providing a convenient way for people who find a stray pet to check for a registered microchip and help reunite the animal with its owner.
Funded through the Jack A. and Gertrude W. Wilson Animal Welfare Fund, the stations will be placed across George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, and Stone counties, with one location per county except Harrison, which will have two.
Several locations have already been confirmed, including The Local Storage facility on Old Highway 63 in Lucedale in George County and the Wiggins Police Department in Stone County.
In Harrison County, one station will be located at MGM Park, home of the Biloxi Shuckers, through a community partnership with the organization. GCCF expects the stations to be installed
in the coming weeks, with additional locations to be finalized as plans evolve. Follow the Foundation’s social media (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) for updates.
The scanning stations will be managed in partnership with
six local animal welfare organizations, the same agencies that participated in GCCF’s second-annual FIXED for Life program in 2025: Rise & Shine Animal Rescue in George County, Friends of the Animal Shelter in Hancock County, Humane Society
of South Mississippi in Harrison County, Friends of Jackson County Animal Shelter, Pearl River County SPCA, and Stone County SPCA.
For smaller rescues like Rise & Shine Animal Rescue, the availability of community scanning stations can make a significant difference.
“As a rescue with a municipal contract, having access to microchip scanning stations in the community can make a huge difference in how quickly lost pets are reunited with their families,” says Denise Wilder, director of Rise & Shine Animal
60 | April 2026
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