Thank you for your work bestyears. I am so awed by your persistence and fortitude.

We've rescued a few lost dogs and have been fortunate to get them back to their owners (they were chipped). One pair was actually miles away from their home. I've heard that dogs can travel many miles in a short amount of time. I don't know that it's not that someone isn't looking for them, but that they may be so far away.

I am not really aware of a lost pet finder service in our area, most people just go to the Humane Society or dog shelter. I see a few lost signs and have had people come door to door.

To have a statewide clearing house would either need to be done by a non-profit agency, or a division of a state agency. In both cases, it'd be a case of funding being the primary issue why there isn't one. It may be worth talking to your local shelter as a starting point. Maybe there IS something you're not aware of? If not, maybe your passion for this cause might be the catalyst to make something happen.

I hope that every one can get their pets spayed, neutered and chipped. Keep your pets inside and with collars & tags at all times!!

In my decades of animal rescue I have learned that:

Many (most?) of the "lost animals" are in fact deliberate dumps that people won't own up to.

Some lost animals are better off w/o their humans.

Most people's idea of what constitutes an effective or even barely adequate amount of effort to find a lost pet is pathetically off-base.

Many people believe you can't find animals, or they tell themselves that because it's too much trouble to undertake the effort of a search (or they really are relieved the animal is missing).

As long as people acquire animals as life-style accessories (even mutts from the pound qualify) then they will continue to feel they can dispose of their "property" at will.

I will help people find their pets, but I am frequently disgusted to find they are only going through the motions and that they (not infrequently) know exactly what happened to the animal, but won't tell the truth about it to their families.

If I sound jaded - I am. My household contains (at the moment) of two bunnies and six cats who were formerly pets and then abandonned in the wild (or in the case of the buns in the box compactor behind a supermarket!@#$%&^!@#). (I also have several more former feral cats who had injuries needing care but were judged too wild for "normal" family life, who live inside with us now.)

There are also a lot of scammers out there preying on desperate (or guilty) people with lost animals for doing "searches" through online databases.

I think any computer-based clearinghouse could certainly help, but I also think that a lot of "lost" pets aren't really misplaced, just dumped. So you might wind up "re-uniting" animals with their owners who wanted them gone in the first place. But at least then, in my state - NY - they could be charged with the crime of animal abandonment.

L

I'm not sure what could be done to help reunite pets with families. That assumes the pet is truly lost. There is a wave of pet snatching in our area. I have a friend whose lab was stolen from his front yard. A neighbor saw someone pick it up. In that case it is unlikely that the dog will ever be found.

A few years ago a dog wandering into my yard so I kept her for the day while trying to find her family. I called the local shelters and police station. The police station said they only had a male dog reported missing. After about 24 hours I called again and asked for the phone number of the people who reported the male missing. Sure enough, I had their dog. The police station wrote it wrong in their notes. The dog used to live in our neighborhood and had traveled several miles.

We just had a dog found in our neighborhood that was lost 2 counties over, 5 miles away. For the dog to get here in the short amount of time he was missing, someone had to pick him up. I suspect he escaped that yard and the person who found him brought him to the vet and had him scanned and that how he was found by his owner.

Chipping and tagging a pet is so crucial, yet only 20% of pet owners do either.

Thanks for your work in helping reunite pets with their owners. That's a much needed service.

liriodendron, I think you must be right. It's just so hard to believe. I mean people look harder for a lost piece of jewelry or camera. I still don't understand where these missing pets go -the ones people are desperately searching for. Maybe if Bill Gates is an animal lover, I could get his foundation to create a national registry. I read recently that in Italy it is the law that your pet must be chipped. Considering how much money is spent by animal control you would think it would be the law here.

I applaud your efforts. We live in the country and have been the recipients of many dumped off dogs over the years. I cannot even count the cats. Before the local animal shelter was started, I thought we were it. Last week, DH was followed across our ranch by a bedraggled, but basically healthy, unspayed, collarless, young female lab mix. We are down one vet visit (no chip), vaccinations, Trifexis, $450 for Persian rug repair, $200+ (no final word yet) for Zimmerman sofa pillow cover replacement, etc. She's on the books for spaying this week. I'm just wondering whether I should put in the chip, or wait for a response a bit longer. Neighbors saw her for the better part of a week, wandering around, before she found my DH, who cannot say no to a dog. Ever. No posters, ads, radio announcements of missing dogs (which are free PSAs here), responses, etc. I know she was dumped. The vet says she is over 8 months old, based on dentition. Who does this after 8 months! I guess she's ours now.

oh bless you (and your husband kd). I don't know what these little loves would do without people like us. Honestly, could anybody ask less than an animal while giving so much? And look what happens to them too often....

I'm in the same boat, our suburban home backs up to a wooded area. My cat, a long-term foster was due to be put down because of a peeing problem (behavioral) that made her unadoptable. We started letting her play outside (we're far from busy streets, safe fenced yard) and I put food out. Suddenly, I saw at least half a dozen cats (and a skunk and a racoon, which were enjoying the food I had put out for my cat). To make a long story short, One of the friendliest "ferals" was a long-haired orange fluff ball. One day he "kissed" my fingertips. Next day, he showed up again and sat on my porch. He is gorgeous and, as it turned out, neutered. No chip. I couldn't believe that no one was looking for him. I looked on web sites, hunted for posters (our neighborhood is fairly confined and not large so I half expected to see signs on the light posts which is what some people have done). Nada. I had him seen by the vet. He had a tapeworm & fleas. I got him his shots. He is now curled up on my window sill sleeping. The vet figures someone dumped him. Unbelievable! He is now going on Saturdays to our local cat rescue adoption site, maybe someone will see him and want to take him in. In the meantime, he's here with us. Oh, btw, I'm ALLERGIC to cats! Anyone in suburban Philly want a lovely companion who now has ZERO interest in going outdoors???

I think part of the problem is that there are so very many internet sites where you can list/report a lost or found pet. I've rescued a few cats in my time and was stunned at the number of sites where lost pets were reported. Even when I found what looked like the perfect match for one cat, the phone number was out of service. I never found a pet's real home, ever.

And the pound--I'd call and get the answering machine and leave a message. Never any follow-up, no matter how much I called or how many messages I left.

Every stray cat I've found I've either kept or found a new home for. Some of them were clearly house cats. I never knew if they'd escaped or been abandoned.

Thank you for being such a kind person, Bestyears.

Perfinder is a well known national website that a lot of shelters use to advertise the animals available for adoption but most people don't realize that you can also post lost and found pets there.

It's under the classifieds section - you can sort the classifieds by state and date too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Petfinder - National, by state, lost and found pets

Hi all,
Thanks for all the input. Yes, I do know Petfinder -and check them pretty much every day. I believe I read years ago that the founders of petfinder were self-made people who then created Petfinder as a way to give back. It is a fabulous way for people to find adoptable, rescued animals, but I find it quite weak on the Lost & Found side. Very, very few listings, and not particularly good keyword search abilities.

So here I am again, sitting with a small/midsize dog that I found at Sonic this morning. And I swear... I do.not.go.looking.for.lost.dogs! All silvery, gray, kind of schnauzer looking. Very well behaved. Unneutered male. Absolutely covered in burrs and matts. So one might think he's been lost awhile but he is actually very muscular and not particularly thin.... No collar of course. As soon as my daughter gets home we'll take him in for a chip scan. In the meantime... no Lost Dog ads that match up....

Just listened to a piece on NPR this morning in which it was mentioned that there are still shelters that sell dogs and cats to research facilities. The practice is called pound seizure. They only keep the strays for the requisite 5 days, so if you don't get there in time, you are out of luck. I think they said only 17 states outlaw the practice. Maybe we should all check with our local shelters and ask if they do this. One person on the show said she got such an evasive answer that she knew her shelter followed that practice. Depending on what you find out, you could also organize to have the laws in your state changed. I will link a website I found and here is what it said about Virginia laws. The first part worried me, but the second part appears to ban pound seizure.

"� 3.2-6547. Acceptance of animals for research or experimentation; prohibition

No person shall use or accept for the purpose of medical research or experimentation any animal bearing a tag, license, or tattooed identification, unless the individual who owns such animal consents thereto in writing.

� 3.2-6557. Animal control officers and humane investigators; limitations; records; penalties

A. No animal control officer, humane investigator, humane society or custodian of any pound or animal shelter shall: (i) obtain the release or transfer of an animal by the animal's owner to such animal control officer, humane investigator, humane society or custodian for personal gain; or (ii) give or sell or negotiate for the gift or sale to any individual, pet shop, dealer, or research facility of any animal that may come into his custody in the course of carrying out his official assignments. No animal control officer, humane investigator or custodian of any pound or animal shelter shall be granted a dealer's license. Violation of this subsection is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Nothing in this section shall preclude any animal control officer or humane investigator from lawfully impounding any animal pursuant to � 3.2-6569. "

Here is a link that might be useful: pound seizure by state

Here are the 17 states that ban release of dogs and cats for research, most seem to be on the east coast: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, W. Virginia, and Washington DC.

Some states allow municipalities to decide. Michigan is one and one municipality there has banned pound seizure.

Some states like Oklahoma and Minnesota actually require the release to research facilities unless there is a municipal law prohibiting it. Ohio requires a payment of $3 from a facillity to get the dog.

I remember the fight over vivisection when I was in elementary school in the late 50s. I never dreamed this still went on today!

Bestyears, did you find out anything about the new-found pup? Poor baby.

Yes, kind of roundabout actually.... There have not been any ads anywhere, not in the area, not online. But someone told me that they saw this dog in the parking lot (a convenience store and Sonic share a big lot) awhile ago, an went back to find it, and was told by the store mgr. that the dog belonged to people in a nearby house who just let it run every day, and it frequently seemed to be starving. This parking lot is at the intersection of two very busy roads (speed limit 45 mph). I think I mentioned in my initial post about the deplorable condition the dog was in. I had to cut most of his hair off before bathing him, because it was unbelievably matted. So either this is the same dog, and he has a home he doesn't need to go back to, or it is a different dog and nobody is looking for him....

Anyway, fortunately we now have a no-kill shelter in town, so I took him there. I don't doubt he will get a good home quickly, because he is unbearably sweet and very well-behaved...

In other news - I helped two people find their dogs this week -that's a record for me! One has been missing since Sept. A wonderful woman had found him, and has been taking care of him all this time, watching for signs etc. She isn't really "an internet' person, so she hadn't looked online, or advertised him -except for one tiny ad, that I happened to run across! Happy dog, happy owner!

Thanks-that is all good news! Angel wings for you!