Home
Back to Section IV
animal-pounds.com -- lost pets information site
IV.
Printer-friendly
Applicable to any U.S. area --
Applicable to some International areas
A. SEARCH
BASICS
Reminder 1: Pounds and shelters are required to keep animals only 5 days, although
some keep them longer.
Read all info posted on this website.
See Section V when you're ready to simplify your search schedule.
1. Overwhelming
Details? Important: Do not let these details overwhelm you. First, read through all info. Keep
an open mind. Get a solid understanding of the wide area around where
your pet was lost. If, for example, you live in a city of 300,000
people, you will likely have other cities nearby as well as suburbs. Minneapolis,
Minnesota has over 300,000 people; the greater-metro area
has over 3 million people in about 176 separate municipalities in our
immediate 7-county metro area, all within reasonable distance for search
efforts. This document will give you details on how to
accomplish necessary search tasks in your own area, whether a large, complex
urban area, or rural community.
2. Tough But Not
Impossible. The efforts required to find a lost pet make worrying about that lost
pet just that much more painful. Still, finding the lost is not
impossible. There are many things you can do to find your
pet, and most can be done with a modicum of effort.
3. Other Pets. In the meantime, if you have additional pets still at home, be
sure to keep them lovingly confined, and provide them with proper
current identification. A collar with tags, plus an implanted chip are
recommended. Also keep a good, clear photo of each pet, showing the
entire body, not just a face shot.
This report, then, will attempt to describe these details for you, so
that you might make your best effort to get a lost pet back home.
First, it is suggested that you simply and quickly read through
Reminder 2: Veterinarians have confirmed that even a small pet can
travel indefinitely at 3 miles per hour, so that in 8 hours, your pet could
travel 24 miles.
Reminder 3: Some pets can be found quickly, others may take weeks
or months to surface. It is important to not give up too soon.
5. How to limit your search labor
Poster tips:
1) There are many sites on the web
for automatic poster-making. Simply search "lost pet poster" to find
them.
d. Email. If you use a computer (as opposed to reading this from
a printed copy), first of all, email everybody you know with information
about your lost pet. Set your email up in poster fashion with your
complete contact info. Ask everyone to email everyone they know.
Hopefully, this will set in motion a "viral" email campaign designed to
get the maximum number of people looking for your lost pet (this may not
work in some circumstances, depending on animal, species, area, etc).
As people email you, keep their email addresses in an email mailing
list. Also keep a list of email addresses of facilities and businesses you can contact by email on a regular basis.
As you visit agencies, ask for their email address to
add to your list, and ask them to add your email address to their email
address book to ensure any email you send them down the road will be
received.
If you
have a good bulk email program available, that can be most helpful. Then
once a month or so, send a reminder email to everyone on your list, and ask them
to make sure your poster is still on their bulletin board, if appropriate, or
simply let them know you are still looking. You may also set up an email
notification, whereby you will be notified if your email is opened by
the recipient. An unopened email could mean your email got caught in
their spam filter.
Set your email up similar to
a poster, with a photo of your pet included (keep in mind that some
security program setups will not allow your photo to be received,
however, so your email should be designed around that problem and should
include a clear description of the lost pet).
e. Plan your visits with or without email. Once you have a good, workable email list in order, then you can determine who is
not emailable. Those which you cannot send email info and
reminders to are the facilities to call or visit, instead.
Reminder
Plan to start collecting names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, website
addresses, and chat locations online right at the beginning of your search. With
no computer, an alphabetical cardfile with one card per agency in one
section and one card per important contact person in a separate section
can be helpful to keep everything in easily-accessible order.
B.
1. When you visit a pound or shelter,
make notes about the facility -- how
large it is, whether there is a bulletin board, how many and what kinds of intake lists they
have, whether they allow access to all areas and what those areas are, and
whether there is a particular person there whom you feel you can trust to keep
an eye out for your lost pet. If you do not feel you can trust, then flag that
facility as one you must visit personally.
NOTE: (this paragraph is repeated in E-2 Intake Lists)
Some facilities will not allow
you to view certain animals. For example, if you are helping a friend by
searching for their pet alone, you yourself may not be allowed to see
new animals brought in, ill or injured
animals, or dangerous animals, whereas the person who lost the pet may
be allowed to view them. Private facilities do set some of their own
rules, and you and I are obliged to follow them.
E. WHERE AND HOW TO SEARCH.
If a facility has no area for ill or injured, ask where
they keep them. It's possible that 3
4. Other Important Connections and Tactics CATS TIP: If you have lost a cat, many cats
become terrified and go into hiding when out on their own. If you
suspect your cat is holed up in a neighborhood garage or other
outbuilding, work with the property owner and place a food-baited humane
live trap at the site. Monitor it closely. Some cats are adept at these
things and can scratch and claw their way out of some supposedly secure
traps. In addition, these traps are normally metal wire -- if the cat is
trapped in a live trap, there is nowhere to go for comfort, and sitting
on metal wire in inclement weather can be damaging, and/or he could
suffer terribly if not found shortly after being trapped. 1982, Copyright cT2, inc., Box 7164,
Please address email: "info at
animal-pounds dot com". Thank you!
2. Recruit helpers whenever you can.
Don't be shy about asking for help.
Every poster someone else is willing to put up
is one more you don't have to worry about. When you go to pounds and
shelters ask other visitors whether they come in often, and if they do, give them some posters and ask if they will
keep looking at that facility for you and if they'll put some posters up
elsewhere, too. Make a note of this on your records ...
and if possible, get info so you can keep in touch with them. Ask them to post in their
own neighborhood, at work, at the
grocery store, etc. Do not rely on any one person though ... ask everyone, in
hopes that you will end up with at least one helpful person for each
facility.
3.
5
C. TYPES OF ANIMAL CONTROL
As mentioned earlier, there are different kinds of
animal control, with some municipalities
having no regulations regarding stray animals, and therefore, no animal
control. Most do control
the stray animal population. When a municipality does provide some sort
of animal control, the type depends on what the larger city, county, or
smaller municipality has
decided on. (see Section III, item F for comparison details). The choices may
include:
1. Having their own impoundment facility (animal pound) and hiring
their own employee animal wardens;
2. having their own facility, but contracting out to animal
control wardens who are not employees;
3. contracting with another facility such as a veterinary office,
private kennel, individual animal warden, another city’s pound, or a humane shelter.
4. When a private animal control warden is contracted with to pick
up strays, sometimes that warden decides where to bring the animals;
sometimes that may be controlled by the contract; sometimes that private
animal warden may contract with several municipalities and may or may
not house the animals in the warden's own kennel.
5. Sometimes animal pickup is left to the city police or sheriff’s
office; sometimes police or sheriff's office will deliver directly to a facility,
sometimes they will call a contracted warden. If state patrol does any
animal pickup, then if an animal
ends up running on a Federal freeway and needs to be picked up, that would be up
to the state patrol or possibly the county. Where the state patrol brings the animal, would
depend on what the state has arranged, such as using a county or city
impoundment facility or one of the others listed in this section. In rural areas, sheriff’s offices
would usually be in charge and responsible in their county, if in fact
they pick up strays at all.
D. HOW TO FIND POUNDS AND SHELTERS
S
1. Get city, municipal, and county information from your local phone book,
and record the phone number and address of each municipality or county in your search list.
In some cases, you may find animal pound information within a city or
county listing.
2. Get a good local map which
lists all municipalities in your area. Compare this list with your phone book
list. The phone book, of course, will list phone numbers; however, you
may find that some minor municipalities are missing in the phonebook
blue pages
listing. Use the local map listing to catch those missing municipalities and then dig around to find
their phone numbers.
3. Call every single
municipality and county and ask who handles animal control for them and ask for the phone
number. Call that phone number to be sure both the number and the information
are accurate. For what information to ask for, continue reading all
pages of this document.
NOTE: Read all
details; however, to simplify your search efforts, please refer to
Section V for an example search schedule.
1. Call and visit all known pounds and shelters
in your area-wide circumstances. "Area-wide"
could mean your several-county metro area, or your "greater-county" area
if you live in a mostly-rural situation. Keep in mind that city and county
borders do not count when it comes to where a pet could
go. Either on their own or if transported by someone, your pet can cross city
and county boundaries, he can cross rivers, run across bridges, race
successfully through traffic into another community. Your review of municipalities should
therefore include every municipality listed in
your phone book(s) and map(s) for all area codes within the boundaries you have
selected for your search.
2. Intake lists. Visit every pound and shelter that you can possibly
visit. Ask to see their intake lists. No matter what kind of pet you have lost,
it is important to search through all lists of animals brought
in, if they have more than one list:
a. lists of live cats,
b. list of dead cats,
c. list of live dogs,
d. lists of dead dogs,
e. lists
of other live animals,
f. lists of other dead
animals,
g. all list(s) of ill and injured,
h. all lists of dangerous animals.
Watch for human
error.
You may find a cat on the dog list and a dog on the cat list.
NOTE:
a
Note: Although we do not refer to the last two listed
above other than indirectly and as part of our information on "shelters"
in general, it is important to know about them for your search purposes.
Animal rescue groups are those "shelters" which often do not have their
own facilities, which often concentrate on specific breeds or types, and
which typically place animals in foster homes until adoption is
accomplished. Animal sanctuaries normally take in animals which are not
adoptable for one reason or another, such as feral cats. Unless your pet
is lost for a very long time, the last one would likely not be helpful
in your search. However, one never knows, so if time and energy allow,
be sure to check with them, anyway.
b
c. Surf the web. First look for all
pounds and shelters in your state, scan through the list, and then narrow it
down to those in your greater-metro or greater-county area. As you work, compare
what you find on the web with both your impoundment agency list and your
new lesser-known shelter list. This process can be
important, since some agencies may be listed incorrectly here or there due to human error,
even in your local phone book. You may also find some newer shelters on the web that are not in the phone book.
Since there may be many lists on the web, it may be important to search
until you've reviewed as many of them as possible. Also note that some may list certain kinds of
shelters, and ignore others.
a
b. Call any and all local Highway Department facilities since they
are often responsible for picking up deceased animals on city streets,
the sides of freeways and rural routes. In cities, the impoundment
facility may also do this.
Highway Departments typically do not keep records on dead animals picked
up, so you must rely on any verbal information you can get from them.
Ask them to please put up posters for you anywhere within their
facilities that drivers might go ... perhaps coffee rooms, for example.
c. Call Sanitation Departments; sometimes in addition to local pounds, they
would be the next most likely to pick up deceased animals on urban and suburban
streets.
Sanitation departments typically do not keep
records on dead animals picked up, so as with Highway Departments, you must rely on any verbal information
you can get from them. Ask them to please put up posters for you anywhere within
their facilities that drivers might go such as coffee rooms/break rooms.
d. Veterinarians. Look in your local phone book for all veterinarians in that same area of
municipalities. Call each veterinarian; get a Lost poster to each one. On
occasion, veterinarians have reported people tossing pets in their door and
running, leaving the bewildered animal behind. Or veterinary clients may have seen your
pet. In addition, some veterinary clinics double as animal impoundment
facilities, so be sure to ask if they do. We have also verified (at least in the past), that some
veterinarians may also sell for research. You can determine if this is
so in your area by checking the Federal Register of research facilities
and suppliers which lists research facilities and suppliers by state. If
a supplier is listed by individual's name only, find out with which
facility that individual is affiliated. Continue reading for further
information.
e. Pet Shops. Call and/or visit all pet shops and get posters to them.
f. Groomers and trainers. Call and/or visit all groomers
and trainers and get posters to them.
g. Search Lost and found listings. Search in all of your local papers (both
large papers as well as small free local papers); ask your pounds and shelters if they keep lost and found lists
and/or a lost and found bulletin board; visit local grocery stores and check
their bulletin boards; recruit people to watch for posters for found pets.
h. Place Lost ads in your local papers, on Craig's list, on grocery
store bulletin boards; put up posters
as far out from the area of loss as possible -- all over your metro or
multi-county area if possible. Recruit others to help in
this effort.
i. Try to get public service announcements or human interest news articles in local papers, on
TV, and on radio stations. Get on chat sites online and ask people to spread the
word.
j
Stay safe. Never give out personal information. Never allow anyone to come to your
home to deliver "your" pet. Make alternate arrangements for safety.
Once trapped, do not open the trap. Carry the trapped
cat home, and release it indoors where it is safe.
l. Pets often
recognize the sound of a familiar vehicle. Park
If driving to search, drive out away from the location
where the pet was lost, then on the way back to that spot, honk the horn
on occasion (don't honk when leaving the area, since that could draw the
animal in the wrong direction). With window down, call your pet's name,
but do that only on the way back to the spot.
If the pet was lost away from home, when you have to
leave the area see if you can leave food there, and maybe a trash can on
its side with bedding in it. That can be tough under some circumstances
what with vandals, stray animals, etc, but it can be a successful
tactic. Some pets hide and come to the area of loss only after dark
and/or when it's quiet, and will need food and shelter upon return. If
there is a gas station, convenience store, or friendly neighbor
immediately nearby, perhaps they would be helpful and let you work from
and leave food and shelter on their property instead of at the exact
spot from which the pet was lost.
m. B
n. Associations. If your pet is purebred or a popular mixed
breed, attempt to locate an association in your area which is devoted to
that type, such as a Siamese Cat Association or Chihuahua Association,
and get posters to them. Such an organization may also be a great place
to recruit individual helpers.
5. Research Details
a.
Who can sell for research. Individuals, businesses, or government
agencies selling for research must have a Federal license to do so.
Individuals or small kennels may raise their own animals specifically
for research, or they may acquire low-cost or free animals advertised
locally (an important reason to never ever advertise a "free pet"). An individual or kennel may also contract with a municipality
for animal control, and depending on the contract, may be required to
surrender unclaimed pets for research.
b. Government animal control facilities are required by
Federal law to surrender animals for research if requested by a research
lab, when those animals are not claimed by their owners. Government
animal control facilities may include animal pounds operated by large cities,
counties, smaller municipalities; police departments, sheriff's departments,
etc., and possibly contractors such as individuals, kennels, catteries,
veterinarians, and others who may conduct animal control operations for
a government entity.
Some pounds work around the research issue and get by with not surrendering for
research. Others prefer to get the extra funds from selling.
c. Private facilities such as humane shelters and no-kill
shelters are not required to
surrender for research unless they are contracted by a municipality to act as an
impoundment agency.
d.
e. Call the Federal offices and get a copy of the Federal Register for research
labs. The Register lists research labs, kennels, catteries, veterinarians, animal
pounds, and others in your area registered to sell for research. Review it
carefully, since we may have missed listing a type of facility. Call each of them
(labs and sellers); get a poster to them; keep in touch with them.
F. REWARDS
If you can afford to do so, offer a reward.
However, there are issues that should
be considered:
2. if you offer no reward, that's ok, but then there's no
incentive for people to go out of their way to help, especially if
they're not particularly wild about pets;
3. if you offer a
moderate reward, that could encourage people to do more than just read about
your loss. Use your own good judgment and simply do the best you can;
4. you may choose to offer a reward somewhat higher than the dollar value of
your lost pet.
This could make your reward offer more interesting to someone than
the money offered by a potential buyer. Keep in mind that if your pet is an
un-neutered purebred (or popular mixed-breed) which could be used for breeding
purposes, that ups the value of your animal to someone looking to breed and sell
the puppies. In such a case, you may want to offer an even higher reward based
partly on the number of puppies a pet of your type commonly has in a litter.
Tip: Neuter or spay your pets.
5. We suggest you look with kindness at people wanting a reward. If someone
calls you demanding to know how much your reward is, how bad can that be? That
caller is your ally, not your enemy. That person who needs the reward money may
be an excellent set of eyes watching out for your pet. It is recommended that
you treat reward-seekers with compassion and friendliness while yet watching out
for your own safety.
Keep looking as long as humanly possible.
If you plan well and set up a good system,
you can do much every month with fairly minimal effort after your initial push. If you can recruit
others to help, an amazing amount of work can be accomplished. For example, if
you can recruit only 5 caring pet lovers, friends, or family members,
and each of those people does just five small things every day, 7 days a
week, that comes out to 750 items accomplished every single month. Four
short phone calls and a quick stop at a pound or shelter on the way home
from work. Five emails. Three phone calls, a poster and a grocery store
bulletin board card.
These are absolutely doable for many people.
Since lost pets sometimes take weeks or months or longer to surface,
it's important to keep up the effort and to find good, strong, committed helpers.
Home
Back to Section IV
Minneapolis, Mn 55407
All rights reserved