Missing Pet Alert

If you wish there was an Amber Alert for pets, you’re in luck!

When it comes to sounding the alarm and issuing a missing pet alert when your dog or cat or parrot goes missing, you want to notify as many people as possible.

This may sound like common sense; however, there is a science behind creating an intelligent alert for missing pets. People today are bombarded with distractions and can easily miss a sign or, sadly, your actual pet. The importance of making sure observant people really see your missing pet alert translates to telling the largest possible number of people.

The trick to making a missing pet alert to catch everyone’s attention

The dedicated animal lovers at the Missing Pet Partnership have taught us a lot about how the human brain is over-stimulated and, therefore, may omit information staring them right in the face. They recommend having a detailed flyer with your pet’s information on top of a large piece of neon poster board. In the experience of the organization, it’s important to understand that you only have about five seconds and five words to relay your missing pet alert to people driving or walking by on cell phones or talking to companions.

Your missing pet alert should include five important words which include “Help Find! Lost Cat!” Remember, if you have five seconds, you need to get the point across in as few words as possible to win the attention of distracted passerby. Write your words as large as you can to ensure people can read them from a distance.

An intelligent pet alert poster needs to be bigger than your detailed 8 ½” x 11” missing pet alert flyer. Demanding attention from people driving by requires big letters and clear messaging to convince them to pull over and look at the photo and description of your missing pet alert. The suggestion from the people at Missing Pet Partnership is to place your missing pet flyer on a giant, fluorescent orange poster board measuring at approximately 28” x 22”.

Make sure to place your missing pet flyer inside a sheet protector so the text will not be rendered unreadable from weathering. The Missing Pet Partnership recommends taping the sheet protector (which you can purchase in any office supply store) with the missing pet flyer secured inside with the open flap facing downward to prevent rain from smudging the writing. Keep track of your missing pet alert flyers so you can check them periodically to replace any damaged posters.

Your missing pet alert flyer must be legible! After you have someone’s attention, the photo on your missing pet alert flyer needs to be recent and clear and your description or special characteristics details need to be typed or very neatly handwritten.

[googlepdf url=”https://myneighborhoodalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/missing-pet-alert.pdf” ]

What’s so important about the color of the poster board backing your missing pet flyer alert?

The Missing Pet Partnership posted a humorous, but, illuminating YouTube video which demonstrates a human phenomenon known as “inattention blindness.” In the video, you see one person handing out missing pet alert flyers to people in a park who then look at the flyers and pass the actual “missing dog” altogether. Though each person shown in the video took the flyer and looked it over, when they passed the actual dog on the flyer, only two people out of several people identified the dog.

Even though two observant people actually saw the missing dog, they only did so after the makers of the video tried an experiment in which they dressed the dog up as Elvis. Assuming your pets do not live full time in costume, you’re up against “inattention blindness” when you enlist strangers in the search for your missing pet.

To avoid making your missing pet alert virtually invisible at the hands of inattention blindness, use loud, out of place colors to turn more heads. The Missing Pet Partnership has put their method to work and successfully brought home lost animals several weeks after they went missing.

What does adding a reward contribute to getting attention for your missing pet flyer alert?

There is some debate as to whether or not it is genuinely beneficial to list a monetary reward on your missing pet alert flyer. According to The Missing Pet Partnership, it may be unwise to list a reward.

Part of the reasoning behind leaving off with a reward comes from tragic experiences. Well-meaning people who do not have an understanding of missing pet behavior have allegedly chased frightened pets away from feeding stations designed to attract them or, worse, into traffic. These mostly well-meaning people try too eagerly to catch the animal and claim the reward.

Use science when crafting your intelligent alert for your missing pets to appeal to the wiser part of the human brain. The National Institutes of Health have identified different parts of the brain which are stimulated based on reward versus altruism. Monetary motivation activates the nucleus encumbers which is a more primitive, “pleasure-seeking” center of the mind. The part of the brain which is activated by social interaction (i.e. cry for help) is known as the posterior superior temporal sulcus or the “altruism center.”

Though both the altruistic and pleasure-seeking centers of the brain can function simultaneously, your bright, briefly worded missing pet alert poster is just enough to put the altruistic center in the driver’s seat. It doesn’t take much – just an interest in helping someone to activate the smarter part of the human brain. Using the words, “Please Help! Missing Dog!” will call more observant, caring people to your cause which may make your missing pet safer in the search process.

Place your missing pet alert posters where they are easily seen

Making intelligent alert posters for pets is not enough – those posters need to be placed where the highest traffic of onlookers will find them.

Place your missing pet alert flyers in high traffic places. Use duct tape to secure your missing pet alert flyer posters on telephone poles near the site where your pet was last seen. Make sure you consider places within a 2 to 5 mile radius and secure the posters as high up as you can to increase visibility from a distance.

Consider campaign signs to post even more of your missing pet alert flyers. You can duct tape your neon posters to A-frame campaign posts and secure them in the ground on busy streets. Duct tape the top of the campaign sign so the wind doesn’t make your missing pet alert flyer poster hard to read.

Increase the visibility of your missing pet alert flyer by signing up with Paw Technologies

Doing your part to locate your missing pet will take you far – with Paw Technologies, you can expand your search even further. Here’s how it works:

Sign up and create a premade missing pet alert flyer: Time is of the essence when a pet is missing which is why Paw Technologies helps you make an intelligent missing pet alert flyer well in advance. With the missing pet alert prepped and saved, you need only click a button to report your pet is missing and send the word out to everyone you know.

The Missing Pet Partnership recommends handing out your missing pet alert flyer in addition to making your big, neon posters. Pass out your premade missing pet flyer to neighbors (but, please, don’t place flyers in their mailboxes – it’s a federal violation). You can also pass out your flyers to your local businesses such as churches, Laundromats, restaurants, hair salons, etc. To read more about the work of The Missing Pet Partnership, see their article here.

While you pass out your premade missing pet alert flyers, Paw Technologies sends out the same flyer to every animal organization and shelter within a 50 mile radius of the site where your pet was lost. You never know just how far your pet can run over the course of several weeks. Paw Technologies will send your premade missing pet alert flyer to organizations who specialize in animals and missing pets to increase your chances of finding your furry friend.

Paw Technologies will contact all the pet shelters in your area. You can rest assured the people who work in your local animal shelters will know about your missing pet the instant you give Paw Technologies the word to send out the missing pet alert.

Paw Technologies Missing Pet Alert

Paw Technologies is like an Amber Alert for pets!

In the same way that Amber Alert contacts everyone in the local area of a missing child, Paw Technologies sounds the alarm to a large community of animal lovers and professionals to ensure more altruistic people are aiding your search for your pet. It’s like an Amber Alert for pets and designed to increase your chances of bringing your furry or feathered (or scaled) friend back home to you as soon as possible.

9 out of 10 pets are reunited with their families through word of mouth and Paw Technologies is the biggest megaphone to blast out your missing pet alert! The premade missing pet alert flyer you make with us is shareable to social media. At the click of a button, you can extend your search to your local friends’ local friends who are then motivated to help and, possibly, share the success story of finding your lost pet.

You might not know all the right people – but, your people might! Your premade missing pet alert flyer is formatted within a file appropriate for mobile sharing to include texting. If you don’t know the name of that organization your cousin works for that specializes in animal rescue, text your missing pet alert flyer to your cousin and let him or her share it with the organization and other helpful people.

We created our version of the Amber Alert for pets because we know your pets are like children to you! We are standing by and ready to help you prepare ahead of time so that if your pet ever goes missing, you won’t waste valuable search time looking for recent pictures. You make your bright shiny posters and we’ll tell all the right professionals to keep any eye out for your pet!