Dog owners across Little Rock are gathering at MacArthur Park this weekend for the 16th annual Puppy Up Little Rock Walk, an event raising awareness about canine cancer and funding research into the disease. Registration opens at 11:30 a.m., the program begins at noon, and the walk itself kicks off at 1 p.m., with a veterinary oncologist scheduled to speak before participants set out.
According to KATV, people can sign up online or register on-site the day of the event. Organizers are also offering extras for pets in attendance, including dog clothing for $5 and microchipping for $15. The event is run under the banner of the Puppy Up Foundation, a national organization dedicated to raising awareness about canine cancer and raising money for comparative oncology research — the kind that studies links between human and canine cancers.
A 10-Year-Old Dog's Fight Against Three Cancers
Among this year's honorees is Hank the Tank, a 10-year-old dog whose medical journey has become part of the walk's story. In October 2025, Hank developed a growth on his lower gum that was diagnosed as ameloblastoma, according to the same KATV report. Veterinarians performed a lower mandibulectomy, removing half of his lower jaw, and during that surgery they discovered a second cancer — a sarcoma on his tongue — which was also removed.
Then in May, a third growth was found: a fibrosarcoma among the trigeminal nerve on his face, per the station's report. Fran Hickman, who spoke with KATV alongside Erica McQueenie about Hank's case, said her uncle had the same condition as Hank. Despite the repeated surgeries, Hank reportedly ate dry kibble on the first day he was cleared to do so and kept roaming the house and stealing things, with McQueenie describing him as stubborn and tenacious.
Cancer Rates and a Tribute Wall Years in the Making
Hickman also spoke to the broader scale of canine cancer during the interview, saying that one in four dogs develop cancer as they get older than age 10 — Hank's age — and that 50% of dogs develop cancer overall. She added that she has had three dogs of her own with cancer. Mike, an old LSU tiger, also had the disease. These figures reflect Hickman's own remarks rather than independently verified statistics.
The walk's tribute wall carries that weight forward, displaying more than 300 photos of dogs that have had cancer, collected over the 16 years organizers have held the event, the same report notes. Puppyupwalk.org similarly describes 2026 as the 16th year of PuppyUp Little Rock, framing the walk as part of a longer local tradition rather than a one-off gathering.
Funding Research That Looks at Both Dogs and People
The research angle is central to the foundation's mission. Per the Puppy Up Foundation, the organization is committed to discovering the common links between canine and human cancers and the causes of these cancers through comparative oncology research, alongside education for pet parents to help keep their pets healthy. The foundation reports that more than 14,000 dogs have attended its walks over the past 11 years, including 1,299 that have been touched by cancer, and that it has educated 80,000 pet owners on the early warning signs of canine cancer.
The National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research describes comparative oncology more broadly as the study of naturally developing cancers in animals as models for human disease, a framework that underpins the kind of research the foundation says it supports. For Little Rock families bringing their dogs to MacArthur Park this weekend, that mission sits alongside a simpler draw: prizes, games, coffee, water and dog clothes, plus the chance to walk alongside dogs like Hank who've made it through.
