HAVE YOU LOST OR FOUND A PET?

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Your animal's license is his or her free ticket home! ... the microchip company if you move.  Keep your cats ... Include your pet's sex, age, weight, breed, colour ...
Prevention is the Best Bet... To increase the chances that your pet will get safely back home to you if they are lost you can take the following steps:  Always have identification on your dogs and cats. The tag should include information on how you can be contacted if the animal is found. Dogs should always wear their municipal license tags. Your animal’s license is his or her free ticket home! Cat collars should be the breakaway type for greatest safety.  Have your pet microchipped. A microchip is lifetime identification that can’t be lost or fall off. However, it is important to remember to update your contact information with the microchip company if you move.

HAVE YOU LOST OR FOUND A PET?

 Keep your cats indoors, and only allow dogs outside under supervision.  Always have a current photo of your pet on hand, just in case. This will make your lost pet poster or ad much more effective and will help you prove the animal is yours if questions are raised.

Windsor/Essex County Humane Society 1375 Provincial Road, Windsor, ON N8W 5V8 Phone: 519.966.5751 • Fax: 519.966.1848 www.windsorhumane.org • [email protected]

September 2008

My Pet is Lost... When your beloved dog or cat strays from home, it can be a traumatic experience for both of you. Here are some tips that we hope will help you find your pet:  Search your neighbourhood. Walk or drive through your area several times each day. Ask neighbours, letter carriers and delivery people if they have seen your pet. Hand out and post a recent photograph of your pet and information on how you can be reached if your pet is found. Post notices at grocery stores, community centres, veterinary offices, traffic intersections, online, at pet supply stores and other locations. Remember that most lost pets are found within a very short distance of their homes.  Visit the Humane Society REGULARLY to look for your pet. Post a lost report on the Humane Society’s web site and bring in a poster for our board, but it’s essential that you come into the shelter on a regular basis to look for your pet yourself. Many animals look similar, and you are the only one who can truly recognize your lost pet. Continue to come in regularly until your animal is found; remember that it sometimes takes time for a lost animal to make its way to the shelter.  Contact other area pounds, including the Lakeshore Dog Pound (519-727-6495) and the Leamington/Kingsville Pound (519-3260359). Sometimes dogs can roam greater distances than you would think they could, or someone may bring them to a shelter some distance from the area where they were found. Provide these agencies with an accurate description and a recent photograph of your pet. Notify the police if you believe your pet was stolen.  Advertise. The Windsor Star will publish a free 3-line ad for a lost animal if space is available. Include your pet's sex, age, weight, breed, colour and any special markings, but leave out one identifying characteristic and ask the person who finds your pet to describe it.  Post a lost report on the Humane Society’s web site (www.petlynx.net/) and bring in a poster for our board.

 Be wary of pet‑recovery scams. When talking to a stranger who claims to have found your pet, ask him to describe the pet thoroughly before you offer any information. If he does not include the identifying characteristic you left out of the advertisements, he may not really have your pet. Be particularly wary of people who insist that you give them money for the return of your pet.  Don't give up your search. Animals who have been lost for months have been reunited with their owners.

I’ve Found Someone’s Pet... You’re driving down the street and see an animal who clearly has lost his way. Or maybe one just shows up at your door looking for food. However you cross paths, if you find an animal who appears to be owned, here are some tips to help you find the animal’s owner:  Walk the animal through your neighbourhood several times each day (be sure that dogs are on a leash and cats are in a carrier). Ask neighbours, letter carriers and delivery people if they recognize the animal, and knock on doors in the area where you found the animal. Remember that most lost pets usually don’t stray too far from home. Hand out and post a photograph of the animal and information on how you can be reached.  Advertise. The Windsor Star will publish a free 3-line ad for a found animal. Include the animal’s sex, age, weight, breed, colour and any special markings, but leave out one identifying characteristic and ask the person who claims to have lost the animal to describe it. There are people out there who claim lost pets to get a ‘free’ animal or to obtain animals for illegal purposes.  Post a found report on the Humane Society’s web site (www.petlynx.net/) and bring in a poster for our board. If your efforts to find the animal’s owners don’t succeed, or if you are unable to care for the animal at your home while you are looking, you can bring the animal to the Humane Society.