Something happened over this new year’s eve break that I’ve never seen before.
People who’d found fireworks startled dogs, had gone to their computers and asked their Facebook friends what they should do with the animal they now had in their lounge room.
Their friends had found regional lost and found pages, also on Facebook, and reposted the details there.
Lost and found page managers then asked for wider community shares.
In many, many cases, these dogs were collected within the hour. Some, whose owners were clearly out enjoying themselves, went home a few hours after they were found. And some went into the care of local rescue groups who would register these lost animals with the required authorities the next time they opened their facilities. Some even had scanners and could simply ask a local vet to call the owner with details.
It was truly magical. No one could have possibly foreseen how the internet would allow the community to work together to keep pets safe. Sure, there’s always been people working to help pets with online lost and found. But never have I seen it work this effectively and with such levels of coordination.
Compare this to the traditional pound experience; Councils may or may not offer an after hours collection service. Any dogs collected will have to enter the pound – a notoriously unhealthy place for an animal to end up. They may or may not be open on New Years Day; the owner may have to wait until the next working-business day to access their pet.
Inconveniencing owners is a part of the business model (after all, if these owners aren’t willing to be given the run-around, they don’t deserve their pets back!) so chances are it won’t be photographed, or listed online. Anyone who comes home and finds their pet missing has ZERO chance of locating it outside of the pound’s opening hours when they will be asked to visit in person. Regardless of where the pet was collected, they will have to drive to whatever industrial area location the city has chosen for the pound. Maybe it will have been shipped an hour across town to a ‘mega pound’ facility, who stockpile hundreds of pets during busy times.
Then there are the fees; owners charged a sustenance fee for every day their pet is impounded. Add that to potentially hundreds of dollars in fines for a dog doing nothing more sinister than walking over to a neighbours house, scared, and asking for assistance. Fines which, after the busy christmas season, the owner may or may not be able to pay.
If the owner can’t pay, no big deal, the pound will kill their dog.
It is any wonder, when we look at the current pound process, that the community has decided to find another way? For years animal advocates have been begging local councils to improve the way they process companion animals. And for years Councils have ignored the plea. We asked the system to change and the system ignored us. So we are working around the system that is choosing to continue to be an enemy to families, and saving pets lives in the process.
The revolution is coming. Pounds will lose a massive chunk of their business model; needed only the capture and hold scared and fractious animals, and to place pets who need new families. Lost pet animals will find their way home through more efficient and more compassionate means, available now to us with technology.
We will solve the issue of lost pets ourselves.
Thank You for such a great idea. I hope you are located in the USA. We really need an idea like yours.
Guess I’m too old to think ahead like you.
Please keep up the good work. I’d like to see ALL pounds put out of business! They are a blight on
our society of pets.
Thanks again!!!
Oh Phooey! I just read the “About Me” article & saw you’re in Australia. So sorry to be a bother.
Just wish you could get someone in the USA into this.
Thanks anyway. ;-))
Very sad these Shelters are. I’ve seen pets reunited on Internet and its amazing. I love to see reunions. Greatful to help in any way I can. Love my furry kids. Pray they never get loose.
Great article! I run the Penrith Area Lost and Found Animals Facebook page with Robyn Tighe and it was awesome how people worked together this NYE to get animals home quick! I had one show up at my place about 11pm, was picked up just after midnight thanks to the chip scanner I had….and there were many others who had the same outcomes. Sadly there are still some missing and Hawkesbury Pound killed 4 dogs today, and have more listed to kill tomorrow for space. There is another page that operates in my area that basically threatens and stalks people who don’t send found animals straight to the pound and that makes me sad. Though animals do have to go there if owner can’t be found through other means, in my experience, of about 20 stray dogs I’ve found over the last few years, only 1 had to go to the pound. Reporting to vets, scanning, posters, posting to Facebook works!
To help with the task of returning many of these pets to their homes, quite a few volunteers have spent their own hard earned cash to purchase a “low cost” Halo Microchip Scanner.
Armed with these scanners many of these volunteers have joined the “Scanning Angels in OZ” Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/scanningangels/.
After joining the group, volunteers are able to volunteer for their location and Facebook Name to be added to our “Scanning Angels” Volunteer Map.
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?mid=zMkbm2mFzePE.kHEOPaS8q5VY.
It’s then simply a matter of someone that finds a pet looking for a local “angel” and contacting them via Facebook to scan the pet.
Armed with the microchip number, the volunteer can then contact a vet or someone else with database access to look up the owners details and, in turn, contact the owner.
The owner can then be given the contact details of the pet’s finder (or “Scanning Angel”) so that arrangements can be made for a re-union to take place.
Using this method, we have found that many pets are returned to their lost families within a matter of hours and in many cases, a lot less.
Of course, getting the pets home quickly saves a lot of stress for families and their pets, importantly it also takes pressure off our pounds who are traditionally bursting at the seams over the Christmas and New Year period.
As our scanning infrastructure grows with more and with more volunteers coming on board every day, it is hoped that the momentum will continue to build so that the numbers of animals being returned home will increase dramatically taking pressure off our pounds and in turn, saving more innocent and precious lives.
I really like the article. I think things are really improving. But we can do more by being even more diligent, making sure our dogs wear a collar with tag, are microchipped and housed in a secure area.
Great job guys, I was watching furbaby after furbaby been captured, picked up, scanned and posted found owners. It was an amazing effort!!!
Well before Facebook the only time I would call the Ranger if I found a dog was if the only tags it had one was it’s council rego tag. There were a couple of dogs I found wandering in Kalgoorlie where this happened – they wouldn’t give me the owner’s number but they called him and he came to collect them when he finished work.
There have been more wandering doggies than I can count who’s owners I just called due to a tag with a number on it on their collar. Sometimes the old way is the best way!
QLPR has a state page and over 30 regional pages with Lost Pet Coordinators who post lost and found (as volunteers) and the state page has nearly 22000 pets listed as reunite/rehomed in QLD,
Our many likers & sharers help us scour pages and groups, newspapers and pounds helping reunite pets through Social Media