Lost and Found Information and Tips

Losing a pet is a horrible situation for everyone involved, human and furry alike. The pets miss their homes and are scared, frightened, suffering, hurt, worried or having anxiety. The families miss their loved ones and worry about what has happened to their beloved furkids, if they are in a good place waiting for mom and dad to find them, still alive, hurt or stolen by mean spirited people. The people who find the animals are worried about what to do that is in the best interest of the animal, where to take the animal, might not be in the position to house the animal very long, or may be stressing about another being to care for. Here are some tips and resources, in hopes to help families reunite with their lost ones.

Whether you find a pet or loose a pet make sure your ad postings are easy to respond to and include as much contact information as you can. The person who has found the animal or lost the animal may or may not have access to the Internet, email, phone or other types of contact.

If you lost your pet, we wish you all the luck in finding your furkid(s). A few tips to reuniting quickly are:

1. Make yourself available to all forms of contact, checking with the all shelters and agencies that take in found pets as often as possible and advertising wherever you can with pictures, a simple description (let those special marks allow only you to identify the pet, but include things like breed mixes if applicable, weight, size, etc), if the animal had tags, collar or micro-chipping, etc. Make it easy for the found party to get a hold of you and identify the dog they have is in fact yours.
2. Report your missing pet to all local shelters, animal welfare agencies and animal control facilities. Some shelters may not take your information, you may have to keep on checking their lists, but Animal Control will keep your lost pets information in their database so that when patrol is out they can be on the look out for your pet.
3. Report your missing pet to the company that supplies the microchip in your pet, any nearby veterinarians and the city that licensed your pet. Microchipping your pet can be the determining factor in whether or not your pet can return to you safely and quickly. Sometimes collars or Identification tags break off when an animal loose. Microchip information can be scanned by anyone with a scanning device and one your pet is lost calling the microchip company to notify them that your pet is lost will also notify those persons who scan the missing pets microchip to find out not only where the pet lives but that it is reported missing. There are plenty of cheap places to get micro-chipping done, and if this is the only medical procedure you do on your pet, it’s the one (not to say that regular check ups and vaccinations aren’t just as important or anything as they are, but a microchip keeps all the data both for medical and identification purposes and is like the pet’s bio in a little chip kept securely in their shoulder so that if something should happen during the lifetime of the animal the owners will have a complete record of activity). If someone calls in to check on a dog license that agency will have a record the pet is a missing pet and is able to reconnect you with the found party much faster.
4. Advertise everywhere you can and include all the details. Whether it is online, flyers, newspapers, pet finder, pet harbor…everywhere.
5. And lastly if it has been a long time since you first reported your pet missing, say 30 days or more, it wouldn’t hurt to check all available adoptions out there for your pet. Your pet’s identity may have been totally lost and the people who have the pet may have them ready for re-homing.

If you have found a pet:

1. Please take the animal to a safe professional place where they can get any medical, microchip scanning help or lost/found help they need and look for clues as to where the pet owner may be and advertised in ay way you can where the animal was taken to. Often times the first places pet owners look, besides flyering their neighborhood or posting ads, is going straight to their local shelters or animal control. If you find a pet, please make sure that you check the most common places where pet owners may be looking. Also you can take any animal to the vet, some facilities are 24-hours, to check to see if the pet is micro-chipped and you can also check in with pet licensing agencies as well status updates. But taking the animal to a professional safe house is the best bet.
2. Please don’t keep the pet or try to re-home the pet if no one claims the pet after a certain amount of time. Remember the animal may have traveled farther than the pet owner has looked or the animal may have been gone longer or stolen and escaped or any number of circumstances. That animal is a beloved member of someone’s family and is missed very much.

Below is a list of resources here locally in San Diego in order to help you out. Feel free to pass these on to anyone that needs them.

Escondido Humane Society - http://www.escondidohumanesociety.org/
Find Fido - www.findfido.com
Friends of County Animal Services (FOCAS) - http://www.focas-sandiego.org/
HSUS – SD Humane Society - http://www.sdhumane.org/
Lost Pet SOS - www.lostpetsos.org
Missing Pet Network - www.missingpet.net/
North County Humane Society - http://www.nchumane.org
Pet Assistance Foundation list of Found Injured Pet Facilities - http://www.orgsites.com/ca/pet-assistance/_pgg9.php3
Pet Harbor – www.petharbor.com
Petfinder Lost and Found Classifieds - http://www.petfinder.com/local.html
Pets 911 Lost/Found - www.pets911.com/lost-and-found-pets/
Project Wildlife - http://www.projectwildlife.org
Rancho Coastal Humane Society - http://www.rchumanesociety.org/
San Diego County Animal Control - http://www.sddac.com/.
San Diego County Animal Control (Patrol): (619) 767-2675 (metro), (760) 438-2312 (North County coastal), (760) 746-7307 (North County inland)