Losing a pet is one of the biggest fears of every pet owner. According to the American Humane Association, one out of three pets get lost at some point in their life, and over 80 % of the missing pets are never found. Only 15 % of dogs and 2 % of cats in shelters without a proper tag or chip will be reunited with their owners.
In numbers, this means that almost 10 million cats and dogs go missing every single year, and will never be found.
What happens to the pets?
Most of the pets that are found, end up in shelters where they’ll eventually be found by their owner. In most cases however, their fates remain uncertain: will they find a new home, remain in a shelter for the rest of their lives or even be euthanized? There are researches published by the site “lost pet research” stating, that only very few cats are actually returned to their owners once they end up in a shelter with rates of 1.5 to 4.5%. (Lost Pet Statistics - Lost Pet Research and Recovery)
They also name a number of reasons:
- Only a very small percentage of cats have ID tags
- Unregistered microchips or these are not kept up-to-date
- Cat owners wait longer to check the shelter and don’t check them as often compared to when a dog is lost
- Most cities don’t have stray holds for cats
- Stray cats end up being taken too far away animal shelters because animal control in smaller towns may not pick up stray cats
- Unless a cat is sick or injured, most do not report or bring stray cats to a shelter because people tend to assume that the cat lives somewhere nearby and is not lost
- Cats are only taken to a shelter after being missing for weeks or months
What pets are most concerned?
Both cats and dogs are concerned. However, the following statistic shows that dogs are more likely to be recovered than cats.
Lost Pet Statistics Infographic by PurringPal
What can I do when my pet is lost?
While this numbers are discouraging, this does not mean that nothing can be done to prevent loss or to recover your pet. Here are some working methods to prevent loss or recover your pets:
Search the neighborhood
- Walk or drive through your neighborhood several times of day and look out for your pet. It’s also a good idea to ask neighbors, mail and delivery people of playing chidren if they have seen your pet.
- Shy pets, especially indoor cats will be really frightened when they find themselves outdoors, and the will most likely hide during the day. Try looking under cars, or decks, inside or behind sheds or bushes – ask your neighbors if they can have a look in their homes or basements as your pet could be hiding there.
Contact local animal shelters
- When a pet is found or captured, it will most likely be placed in a nearby shelter, which is the most important place for your to look for it. File a lost pet report with every shelter within a 15-mile radius of your home and visit them daily, if possible.
- Many shelters post their found animals on their websites or social media channels so it is good to visit these pages frequently, especially if you can’t visit them daily as they might be too far.
Engage your community offline or online
- Personally: Post notices in your nearby community, like supermarkets, stores, community centers, veterinary offices, dog parks, traffic intersections, pet stores and others. Include your pet's sex, age, weight, particular description and a photo. Don’t forget to mention if the pet has any particular characteristic and ask the finder to describe it to you. To avoid scam, best use a prepaid mobile phone number only used for this single purpose as you might get a lot of fake or scam call.
- Online: Use your regular social media channels to post a missing pet post. There are many regional lost pet groups on facebook, so use this for your advantage.
Prevent loss: Use YepiTag to protect your pet
As we stated earlier, one main reason why pets can’t be returned to their owner is that they are not tagged or chipped, so when they’re found, they will likely get lost one more time, inside an animal shelter.
In order to prevent this kind of situation: tag your pet! There are many pet tags available: they come in many different forms and designs, with gps or bluetooth tracking and so on.
YepiPet is an upcoming pet community, and our greatest concern is to help you raise and keep happy, healthy pets. This is why we created our own pet tag brand: YepiTag.
YepiTag uses the QR-technology for pet identification. QR stands for “quick response” and uses a unique code that can be read and understood by any modern smartphone. Robust, easy to use and very reliable, this method requires nothing more than a cell phone with internet reception to identify a found pet, receive important information and most importantly contact the owner. Now, anyone with a smartphone can identify a found pet, receive helpful information about it and send a message to the owner that will include the current location of the pet, based on the finder's GPS coordinates.
With YepiTag, you’ll have the advantage of a regular pet tag, being it’s easy use and robust design together with tracking functionality and the possibility to set different privacy options.
Unlike other pet tag solutions, your name, telephone number and other sensitive information will only be shared if you allow it. This way, you won’t have to be worried about giving away important data in case the tag is lost or stolen.
Find out more about YepiTag here.
We hope that you and your pet do stay safe!
Sources:
Peeva - Missing Pet Statistics in the United States
"Every Day is Tag Day™” — Is Your Pet Protected? - American Humane
