Monthly Archives: April 2015

APRIL 23 IS NATIONAL LOST DOG AWARENESS DAY To Remind Us Not All Stray Dogs Are Homeless

April 23 is the second annual National Lost Dog Awareness Day Shelters and rescues across the United States use this day to bring attention to the many dogs in their care who have family looking for them. We live in a world where people sometimes assume the dogs they find are unwanted. Lost Dog Awareness Day has the stats to prove them wrong.

Lost Dogs of America (LDOA), a coalition of states, including Lost Dogs Illinois has documented over 42,000 reunions since 2011. LDOA facilitated these reunions by providing tips to owners, by using Facebook pages for individual states, and by providing free flyers courtesy of HelpingLostPets.com. LDOA makes it possible for dogs such as; Molly’s photo was immediately shared to other Facebook sites. The person who found Molly had taken her to a vet to be scanned for a microchip, which Molly did not have. However, staff at that veterinary practice looked at Lost Dogs Illinois Facebook page and saw Molly’s photo. Molly was home within an hour and a half of being posted as lost. Social media has brought a new awareness to many that rescued dogs often have families who miss them.

We invite you to participate in the observance of Lost Dog Awareness Day. LostDogsofAmerica.org has a wealth of information to help people who have lost or found dogs.

Why should you help us create awareness?

Your participation will benefit your community because:

Getting lost dogs home reduces stress on the owner and the dog, and
Reduces work for staff at shelters/animal control facilities and rescues, which
Saves taxpayers’ money for animal care, and
Opens up cage and kennel space for truly homeless dogs.

It also shows individuals with lost dogs that their community cares!

“When a dog goes missing, many families give up looking for their lost pet. National Lost Dog Awareness Day was created to give hope to the families still looking for their dogs and remind the public that not all stray dogs are homeless” Susan Taney, Director, Lost Dog’s Illinois.

For more information on Lost Dogs of America, and to see how dogs are reunited, please visit Lost Dogs Illinois on Facebook

PLEASE SUPPORT House Bill 4029 – A Bill That Would Help Reunite More Lost Pets With Their Families

WE NEED TO PASS House Bill 4029

We can’t quite understand it. Why would a common-sense piece of legislation that would require animal shelters to scan all dogs and cats on intake and notify owners be opposed by an animal shelter organization such as the Illinois Animal Welfare Federation?

We can’t figure it out. This Illinois Animal Welfare Act pretty much mirrors the Illinois Animal Control Act, which already requires animal controls to scan all dogs and cats for microchips and notify owners.

510 ILCS 5/10, http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1704&ChapterID=41 Impoundment, redemption for animal control

So why shouldn’t shelters be required to make every attempt to find the owner before placing the animal in another home or facility or euthanizing?

Here’s the new legislation:
See 225 ILCS 605/3.10 new http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=88&GA=99&DocTypeId=HB&DocNum=4029&GAID=13&LegID=90246&SpecSess=&Session=

Seems pretty straightforward. We believe that every facility that shelters animals should seek to verify ownership, even for “owner surrenders” because we can easily imagine scenarios where a disgruntled neighbor, angry ex-spouse or someone who finds an animal could take it to a shelter to relinquish it

This only makes common sense to verify ownership at the initial intake before transferring, adopting or euthanasia. This also allows the opportunity for a family to claim their animal.

During the committee hearing process, the Committee accepts Witness Slips to enter your support of the bill. So please take the few minutes to register per the instructions and send in your electronic witness slip for support. Instructions to register.

Then register your support for the bill through the Illinois General Assembly website.

On the General Assembly’s homepage, click on “GA Dashboard”
Click on “House” in the left hand menu
Click on “Committees”
Scroll down to “Executive Committee”
Click on the gavel icon on the right hand side of the screen to “View committee hearings.”
Click on “View Legislation” box, on the right
Scroll down to HB4029 and click on the “Create Witness Slip” icon, on the far right
Fill out your witness slip and be sure to check “proponent” and “Record of Appearance Only”

The Executive Committee meets this Monday, April 20 at 4:00 pm to consider this bill.

Please register your support by 4:00 on Monday, April 20.

The bill’s sponsors are: Deborah Conroy and Silvana Taberes

Members of the Executive Committee are:

Chairperson: Daniel J. Burke

Robert Rita

Chad Hays

Edward J. Acevedo

Luis Arroyo

Greg Harris

Eddie Lee Jackson, Sr.

Joe Sosnowski

Ed Sullivan

To Hold or Not To Hold – Is it the law? – That is our question

Almost every week, we get comments from Good Samaritans who state they took a “found” dog to a shelter or vet clinic to be scanned for a microchip . If a microchip was found, the facility employees told the Good Samaritans they needed to sign over the dog to them because it is “the law”.

We can’t find that darn law. We have actually reached out to directors/managers of other animal control facilities and vet clinics in Illinois to find out if such a state law exists. We check ed other facilities’ policy. They told us that they take the Good Sam’s information so when they contact the microchip company, the owner can call the Good Samaritan directly to retrieve their dog. Therefore the dog never has to enter the shelter. There are not any impound fees or opportunities for the dog to be exposed to other animals with unknown medical histories. This is especially important now when the canine flu is so prevalent. . I think we can all agree that this totally makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is needlessly impounding found dogs into an already over-crowded shelter, exposing him/her to stress, illness, and possible death by lethal injection. Of course, this also causes stress for the owner and the shelter staff.

Keeping animals out of shelters should be everyone’s goal. If such a law exists that says found dogs with microchips must be impounded, we haven’t seen it.

So Lost Dogs Illinois says Show us the Law!

National Lost Dog Awareness Day – April 23rd

We are gearing up for the second annual National Lost Dogs Awareness Day which is Thursday April, 23rd. We are reaching out all over the nation to increase awareness and to show that not all stray dogs are homeless. Most have a family out there frantically searching for them. They don’t need a new home, they just need help getting back home.

Join us on our mission to spread the word and increase awareness throughout the month of April, Then join us on Thursday, April 23 as we observe the second annual National Lost Dogs Awareness Day created by the founding members of Lost Dogs America.

Keeping our Fans in the Loop – Revisit the ordinance to reduce the stray hold.

As promised we are keeping our supporters updated with our pursuit in having the Chicago Mayor and Aldermen revisit the ordinance to reduce the stray hold for cats and dogs.

Last week our director sent this email to Mayor Emanuel, Susana Mendoza and the 50 Aldermen:

“The citizens of Chicago have spoken and are continuing to speak out against the ordinance to reduce the stray hold for cats and dogs. There are currently over 10,000 signatures on the petition to revisit the ordinance for reducing the stray hold for cats and dogs in Chicago.

There was NO discussion regarding how this was going to affect the hundreds of thousands of citizens and their loved family pets. This new ordinance just made it harder for families to find their lost pets. The issue at Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) is their extremely low Return To Owner (RTO) rate of 15% for dogs and 0% for cats and that is what needs to be addressed. Many cities and counties (even in Illinois) have RTO rates of 50% or more for dogs and 3-13% for cats. Common sense dictates that by getting owned strays back home it saves taxpayers’ money. An added benefit is increased goodwill and public press for CACC and Chicago.

Please take a minute to read Lost Dogs Illinois blogs:

Update: Revisiting the ordinance to reduce the stray hold

Revisit the ordinance to reduce the stray hold

Please feel free to contact me.”

Again, they did not take the time to do their homework in making a decision which affects thousands of citizens in both Chicago and Cook County. Please continue to put pressure on the Mayor and the aldermen. Be clear with your message and ask them to revisit the ordinance.

Thank you