Pet Finder

How to find your missing pet: Know the Odds and Stack the Deck in Your Favor

For most of us, pets are extensions of our family. Considering what would happen to our pets if they were ever lost can feel too upsetting to think about while petting their heads or snuggling at bedtime; however, planning ahead increases your chances of bringing your animal companion safely home again.

The statistics for missing animals are difficult to record as animal care and control agencies are not mandated to maintain accounts of animals accepted, adopted, euthanized, or reclaimed. Nonetheless, what animal researchers are able to deduce from the data available is rather sobering and may inspire you to create a pet finder plan in advance.

A Pet Finder Plan May Be One of the Best Ways to Protect Your Animal Companions

Millions of pets are lost every year

According to the ASPCA, 6.5 million pets are delivered to animal shelters in the United States each year. The good news is the number of pets entering shelters has actually declined from an approximate 7.2 million. The largest decline is thought to be in the dog population, dropping from 3.9 million to 3.3 million. Of these millions of animals, approximately 710,000 are returned to their owners. As staggering as that number is, the chances of going home are not equal between cats and dogs:

• Fewer than 20% of dogs are returned to their owners: Approximately 620,000 of the dogs entering shelters as strays make it back home, often due to the presence of identification tags.
• Fewer than 3% of cats are returned to their owners: Only about 90,000 cats who enter into shelters as strays are ever found by their owners as they are less likely to be found without ID tags.

There are a limited number of animal shelters

When you take those millions of pets and compare it to the mere 4,000 estimated number of brick-and- mortar animal shelters in the U.S., you can easily see how impossible it must be to maintain adequate space and resources for such a high number of animals.

Approximately 8 million pets are euthanized every year in the United States

Of these millions of animals, 80% of them are healthy and adoptable. 70% of the animals entering into shelters are euthanized; within that 70%, approximately 56% are dogs and 71% are cats. With so few shelters and so many animals, a better way for giving them a natural, loving, and comfortable life has not yet been devised; people are advised to always adopt pets from shelters and to make certain their animals are spayed or neutered.

Bring your missing pet home with the services of a dedicated pet finder company

Paw Technologies steps in during those initial, crucial moments of discovering your pet is no longer safe at home. When you sign up with us, you invest in a pet finder emergency plan long before your pet goes missing. There’s no time to waste looking for a recent photo or creating multiple flyers for your neighborhood. Paw Technologies helps you create a printable and shareable flyer to put you in the best position possible to notify as many people as possible. With the touch a button, you send the word out to the people you know via e-mail, text, and the wide-reaching megaphone of social media. Simultaneously, Paw Technologies will alert the people we know within a 50 mile radius of your pet’s last known location with identifying characteristics and your contact information. We notify appropriate organizations to include animal rescue companies, veterinarians, and your local shelters to notify the right people to look out for your pet so he or she can be brought safely home. The sooner you start the search and the more people you have looking for your lost animal, the more likely a pet finder system of this nature will increase the likelihood of rescuing your cat or dog from the streets or a shelter.