How
To Find Your Lost Pet
Physical search: You can identify your pet much more easily
than anyone else. If impossible to look, call the shelter
and ask to speak with the kennel staff or a volunteer.
Keep Looking: Remember many people will not immediately
take a lost pet to the shelter, but will keep it several
weeks, hoping to find the owner. Also, your lost pet may
wander the streets for weeks before being picked up.
Advertise in the local papers: Run an ad as long as financially
possible. Watch the "found ads closely. Most papers
do not charge for found ads. Please remember not to put
all the information about your animal keep a little information
back so that you can make sure that the person responding
really has your pet.
Search your neighborhood and deliver flyers: Flyer should
have description of your pet (hold a little back so when
someone claims that they have your pet you can ask them
a question that only the person with your pet will know).
See if your mail carrier will carry a flyer, gardener etc.
Post Signs: in the neighborhood where your pet was lost:
Telephone poles (where legal), supermarkets, Laundromats,
veterinary offices, pet stores, grooming parlors etc. Use
a picture of your pet on the poster if possible. Please
make a list of where you posted flyers so that when your
pet is found you can go and take them down.
Check with the Department of Sanitation for dead animal
pickups.
Every third day look in the shelter that services the area
where your pet was lost. Don’t think that because your
pet is a purebred that it has been stolen. The shelters
are full of purebreds that are waiting for their owners
to pick them up.
Make sure you check in every department of the shelter,
including:
medical room, small animal quarantine, observation section
(generally large dots/court cases), both male and female
dog runs, call out your pet’s name; if he’s there,
he may respond to your voice. Count impound cards on
front of cage; if you see 3 cards, make sure you see
all 3 animals, check the cat room for cats (occasionally
small dogs are here too), shelter’s computer run (animal
may be at a local clinic, awaiting transport to shelter),
computer runs from other shelters (list of daily pickups),
check with staff for severely injured animals brought in
that were euthanized.
Check
with the Volunteer Desk for:
Lost Dog/Cat sign-in sheet (this will help, but not guarantee,
the identification of your pet. It is always best to keep
checking the shelter personally. Found Dog/Cat list (Note:
these people have been advised to bring the animal into
the shelter, but do not want to. If you have a photo of
your pet, ask for a Lost card and post it at the shelter.
Most shelters have a time limit to how long posts are kept
please check with the shelter staff.
Please check other shelters your pet can turn up at any
shelter. People often do not know where the nearest shelter
is so they take them to their nearest shelter which
could be miles away.
Don’t think that because your gate was closed that
your dog must have been stolen; many dogs are able to jump
high fences. (If you still suspect that your pet was stolen
file a report with your local police department).
MOST
OF ALL, KEEP LOOKING. SOMEWHERE YOUR PET IS WAITING FOR
YOU. HIS LIFE DEPENDS ON YOU!
Most Shelters in Southern California have either a web site
of their own or have volunteers go to them and take pictures
and post to many web sites www.amrt.net, www.1-800-save-a-pet.com,
www.1-888pets911.com or www.petbond.com. There are many
more webs sites out there and www.amrt.net offers a great
selection of them in one place. LA Animal Services is another
great site that offers lost pets information in the City
of Los Angeles.
After your pet has been found:
Immediately place the license on your dog’s collar,
immediately place your pets tag with pet name and your phone
number, have your pet micro-chipped. All Los Angeles City
shelters scan all incoming animals. All animals adopted
out are also micro-chipped. Please remove the flyers and
posters that you distributed.
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Avid Microchip
One of our goals is to help lost pets find their way home.
Many pets end up in animal shelters because they can not
find their way home. Also, many owners do not find their
lost pets simply because they fail to properly tag their
animals, or the tag can simply come off.
Avid microchip will
never leave the animal. An animal with a microchip has an
extremely good chance of finding its way home.
An Avid microchip is
so tiny microchip that contains a personal, one-of-a-kind
identification number which distinguishes your pet as a
special member of your family.
The chip is so tiny
that it fits through a hypodermic needle. Just like a vaccination,
it's injected under the skin of your pet where it remains
safely for life. This inexpensive procedure can be done
anytime and, best of all, protect virtually any pet you
love....dogs, cats, horses, birds reptiles, exotics, even
fish! Everywhere your pet goes, the chip is there. Real
protection that can't fade or fall off.
How the Avid system works:
Every two seconds a family pet is lost tragically, most
never make it back home because their owners didn't identify
them. Identifying your pet is vital. With Avid (registered
name) your pet can't leave home without their identification.
If your lost pet is found by a participating shelter (All
six Los Angeles city Shelters are participating and most
county shelters), they'll check your pet for a microchip
with a special scanner.
When the shelter finds the chip number
they call Avids 800 24 hour hotline. After a quick search
of the PETtrac™ database, you, or your alternate are
contacted, and your pet comes home! Scanners are provided
free of charge to any shelter that requests one.
learn more...
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