Why List Lost or Found Pets on the Web?
Reuniting pets with owners requires that one pursue as many avenues as possible.
The World Wide Web provides yet another way.
Lost pet posters often are unreadable after a rain, and classified ads work
best when they are current and the newspaper is at hand. A digital database
of lost pet posters with scanned photos and text descriptions can be readily
accessible for an indefinite period.
Owners, animal control officers, veterinarians, and anyone else who knows
about a lost or found pet can check the listing for their community. These
listings can be updated frequently and made available longer that most classified
ads. (People who lose pets need to be persistent, for example, some have
been reunited with their owners over a year later.)
Why is this service available?
A few days after seeing posters for a lost blue parakeet, I saw such
a bird at my local automatic teller and was able to capture it. But this
bird turned out not to be the same blue parakeet. Finding the real owner
using classified ads and posters didn't work so I added a parakeet to my
menagerie.
Later I heard about an African Grey parrot returned to its owner as a result
of chance and decided there must be a better way. I remembered that after
the Oakland fire pets were reunited with owners through computer bulletin
boards. Using the Web in a systematic way to keep listings by communities
seemed an obvious answer. I figured others had come up with this idea as
well. My first search last summer led me to a humane society in Newfoundland,
Canada, and to a few private listings. Currently, more Web pages are devoted
to listing lost and found pets, some locally as in San Antonio, Texas (sponsored
by a pet store) and at least one nationally. One of the first listings here
is from a person who searched the Web for a local Lost and Found page and
couldn't find one. (If one exists, let me know so we can combine resources.)
By maintaining this Web page as a prototype for the Palo Alto community
for six months, I am hoping that, if it is shows promise, a similar listing
service will be adopted by volunteers of local agencies.
Of course, this Web site will be of value only if people know about it.
I am trying to get the word out to those who may benefit from it.
Comments to Lost and Found
Pets
No Rights Reserved. Bateau Lavoir Web Design