Thank you Guy and the Anti-Cruelty Society for your blog about the importance of ID tags and Microchipping!

On April 29, 2015, the Anti-cruelty Society posted this blog What’s in a name…if you don’t have proper ID?

While we are thrilled that Anti-Cruelty is promoting microchipping and ID tags as a way to get lost pets home, we would have hoped that this campaign would have been promoted soon after the ordinance was passed. There was a window of four months before the ordinance was implemented that Chicago animal welfare organizations could have offered free and low cost microchip clinics in low income and under served areas. Also, a public campaign about the change of the stray hold should have been implemented.

It is stated in Anti-Cruelty’s blog that historically the return to owner (RTO) rate is 2% for lost pets without identification or microchips. Although this may be statistically true, in our opinion, reducing the stray hold was a knee jerk reaction that will result in the missed reunions of many family pets. Implementing more proactive procedures to return more lost pets home should have been the first approach. For your review, we have included our recommendations that were presented two years ago to the Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) Management team. These recommendations were never introduced.

Best Friends National Conference… The Way Back Home – Reuniting Pets with Their People

Lost Dogs of America and HelpingLostPets.com are pleased to be presenting at the upcoming 2015 Best Friends National Conference in Atlanta July 16-19.

Our joint presentation “The Way Back Home: Reuniting Pets with Their People” will provide proven strategies to assist shelters and volunteer groups to increase their Return to Owner rates (RTO).
For more information about the conference and register, please visit:http://conference.bestfriends.org

Please like the following pages too:

www.facebook.com/BestFriendsConference
www.facebook.com/lostdogsofamerica
www.facebook.com/HelpingLostPets

Why We Do Not Endorse Lost Dog Tracking Devices and Tag

Although this article was written in 2015, we still do not endorse GPS tags or devices for the reasons stated below.

Thanks to the power of social media and the loyalty of our fans, Lost Dogs Illinois, Lost Dogs of Wisconsin and the sister organizations of Lost Dogs of America have developed a very large Facebook following and audience (over 200,000 Facebook fans). Many product developers contact us hoping that we will endorse their products. The lost pet product market is booming. Distraught owners will spend a lot of money both before and after their beloved pet goes missing.

These new devices range from nifty, high-tech ID tags to complicated GPS tracking devices that you affix to a collar. The problem is that they all rely on a company that may or may not be around in a couple of years. Competition amongst these companies is fierce. Many will fail. I want to take a few minutes to share my story.

I have a high-flight risk dog named Pixie. We often leave Pixie at a boarding kennel when we are out of town so my husband felt that purchasing a collar tracking device would give us peace of mind while we were away.

My husband did the research on several devices and purchased a GTU-10 mobile tracking device from a trusted company, Garmin. It cost about $200 and required a $50 yearly service fee. The pros of the device: highly accurate, waterproof, easy to attach to the collar. The cons: a short battery life when it was in “search” mode, and it was fairly large and heavy for a small dog.

Regardless, we were happy with it. Until recently.

A visit to the Garmin website revealed the following message. (We did not receive any notification from Garmin).

Here is what they have said: “The connected services provider for your GTU 10 has determined to cease operations of its 2G network by approximately Jan. 1, 2016. Unfortunately, the third-party services necessary to support the network connectivity operations of your GTU 10 unit will be impacted. At this time, there is no viable alternative of such services; therefore, after such date your GTU10 unit will no longer be operational. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

The device will be useless by January 1, 2016. They are not going to offer a replacement device and they have not offered any sort of credit or refund despite my phone calls to their customer service department. One of the customer service representatives actually had a “too bad, so sad” attitude that we had spent several hundred dollars with Garmin and are now going to have a useless device.

Lesson learned and let this be a warning to all. GPS and cellular phone technology is changing so rapidly that many companies that are here today will be gone tomorrow. Although Garmin is not going out of business, the company that provided the support services for the GTU-10 is and apparently there is no viable alternative.

The best way to protect your dog is with a good old-fashioned visible ID tag (not a fancy gizmo tag that connects to a service) and a microchip from one of the 5 big reputable companies (Datamars, Home Again, AVID, 24 Petwatch or AKC) that has your current information registered. If your dog goes missing, get the word out using old-fashioned flyers and intersection signs. Based on our 10 years of operation, flyers and signs are the Number One way that lost dogs are found.

Create your free flyer and social media links by filing a report with our partner, Pet FBI at www.petfbi.org. One of our volunteers will post it to the appropriate state or provincial Facebook page.

1/15/2021

Kathy Pobloskie, Director and Co-Founder Lost Dogs of Wisconsin; Co -Founder and Co-Director of Lost Dogs of America

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

Use Facebook to Help Increase Your Shelter’s Return to Owner Rate

Many animal shelters in America have contracts with local municipalities to hold “stray” dogs for the state-mandated stray hold to give owners an opportunity to reclaim their lost dog. This period of time varies from state to state.

A shelter typically has two windows of opportunity to help people find their lost dog:

When a person who has lost a dog comes in or calls to file a report.
When “stray” dogs are picked up and impounded at the facility.

Today we want to talk about using Facebook to maximum potential to help lost dogs get home. We are thrilled to see so many shelters and animal control facilities (big and small) using Facebook to try to reunite lost dogs with their owners.

We have been in the Facebook game since our inception in early 2010 and we’ve seen a lot of changes along the way. We have gained a large following and have learned many lessons from our successes and failures. We have seen what does and doesn’t work. We have also seen some shelters start to post impounded found dogs on Facebook and then stop, claiming that it isn’t working or that it requires too much time.

We would respectfully like to offer some suggestions that may help make everyone happy: shelter management, the taxpayer, the shelter donor and volunteer, the dog’s owner and of course the dog that gets to go back home!

The benefits of posting found dogs on Facebook are numerous:

You will decrease the length of stay for animals in your shelter.
You will free up space for needier animals.
You will increase your shelter’s reputation and goodwill (and possibly generate donations from grateful owners and fans). Nothing tugs at heartstrings better than happy reunion photos when an owner reclaims their dog. Make sure you have a camera handy!
You will become a resource in the community for owners who are missing their dogs. Post articles and tips to help people find their missing dogs. Also post happy reunion stories, microchip clinics in the area, and lost pet flyers for members of your community who are missing their pet.
You will help your community make a “paradigm shift” that not all stray dogs are homeless.

If your “stray” intake is low use your main Facebook page to post them. The beauty of posting lost and found dogs on Facebook is that a neighbor or complete stranger might “happen chance” to see the post of the found dog and know where he/she belongs. Or, they might see the lost dog and then see the post.

Yes, the people that are actively matching (the owner, our volunteers and members of the public who enjoy doing this) will seek out the info where ever it is stored, whether it be on a website or a separate Facebook page but that only takes care of the actual matches (where a lost report matches a found report) which is still a fairly small percentage of the reunions.

The best chance for a “happen chance” reunion is to get the posting in front of the biggest audience possible, which is almost always your main Facebook page that you use for all of your shelter Facebook posts. Pictures of impounded pets are one of the most widely shared posts on Facebook (much more than adoptable pets) so posting them on your main Facebook page has the added benefit of driving traffic to your page so that your adoptables, fundraisers, etc. are also more likely to be seen.

A common mistake we see is shelters that try to run a separate Facebook page for found pets and then not actively working to build the fan base of that page. The average person is not going to stumble across the Found or Stray page by accident and Facebook does not make it easy to search. So you will only reach those that are actively looking for your page and the likelihood of “happen chance” reunions will be greatly diminished.

If your shelter has such a high intake of “strays” that posting them on your main page is not feasible, then yes, perhaps setting up a separate Facebook page is the best solution.

Here are a few suggestions if you set up a separate page:

Make sure that you include your location name and county in the title of the Facebook page. Make it as easy as possible for people to find it. Include it on your website and in any literature you distribute.
Include links to the Stray page in the “About Us” section of your main Facebook page.
Drive traffic to the Stray page at least once per day (more at the beginning) by sharing a post from it onto your main page and reminding your fans that “All impounded pets at xxxx shelter can be seen by visiting our Stray page”. Use hotlinks and Facebook tags whenever possible so that people can just click and be taken directly to the new page.
Ask one or two volunteers to help you with this page and give them full access to it. They should engage with the fans and commenters. It’s called “social” media for a reason! Make sure they answer every question and respond to comments. Get your community actively engaged in helping reunite found pets!
Volunteer Facebook administrators can also share the posts on other neighborhood pages – including police departments, newspapers, radio stations, vet clinics, dog parks, town pages, garage sale pages, buy/sell pages and popular neighborhood hangouts like bars and restaurants. This can quickly increase the fan base of your page and makes an excellent and rewarding volunteer opportunity for someone who cannot make it into the shelter to do hands-on work.
Do not get discouraged if the public offers to adopt the dog rather than trying to find the owner. Create some standard responses that your volunteers can copy and paste below these comments. And remember! You are lining up potential adopters if an owner does not come forward.
Link your “Stray” page to a Twitter account with a free Facebook app that will automatically retweet everything you post. Once it is set up it is seamless and maintenance free. You will reach a much broader audience especially if you use hashtags in front of the location. Many police departments and media outlets monitor twitter via hashtag and will retweet your posts for lost and found dogs.

Thank you for helping more lost dogs get home! You can find more tips to help increase your Return to Owner rate in this blog post: Reuniting Lost Dogs with Their Families – How Shelters Can Help

Update: Revisiting the ordinance to reduce the stray hold for cats and dogs in Chicago

We, at Lost Dogs Illinois, feel it is important to keep you informed on what is going with trying to revisit the ordinance to reduce the stray hold of dogs and cats in Chicago.

Last Thursday our Director attended the open meeting of the Commission (advisory board) for the City of Chicago Animal Care and Control. She read the following statement:

“Good Morning! I am Susan Taney, Director of Lost Dogs Illinois. As many of you know, LDI is a not for profit organization that provides resources and tools to help families find their lost dogs. We saw the need to help Illinois residents in the recovery of their lost dogs. Many people give up, do not have the resources to help them, do not know where their animal control facility is located or the money to pay for a professional “pet detective”. In less than five years, over 15,000 dogs have been reunited with their families.

We were very dismayed to learn after the fact that the City of Chicago Budget committee had passed the ordinance to reduce the stray hold. On LDI’s Facebook page, we asked our supporters to contact the Mayor and Aldermen. I attended the City Council meeting with our supporters to only find out that there was no public discussion allowed at the meeting. Another aldermen also had told us that the ordinance was going to be tabled for more discussion. The ordinance was passed with no public comment.

After trying to find out when the ordinance was going to be implemented. I FOIA’d (Freedom of Information Act) City of Chicago Animal Care and Control and received the following message – “See Attached and the link to the ordinance” Then I asked the City Clerk’s office – they gave me the link. Again, no implementation date was set. I did not find out the implementation date until the Prince Charming blog. There was nothing provided to the hundreds of thousands of Chicago residents with beloved family pet members letting them know that the ordinance had been changed. Chicago citizens pay taxes; their taxes fund CACC. CACC is supposed to provide services to the citizens.

I also want to share that two years ago Kathy Pobloskie, Director of LDOW, and I met with the CACC senior management staff to provide suggestions for free and low cost ways to increase the return to owner rates. We offered to train their volunteers. I also presented a PowerPoint presentation to CASA about Lost Dogs Illinois in regards to our program. Our goal is to make Chicago shine and be one of the best cities to live in and know that the Chicago residents who have animals as loved family pets will be treated with respect and dignity. We have received so many testimonials from families saying they did not know what to do, where to look and now CACC has only made it more difficult for residents to find their lost animals. There needs to be a balance between people who have lost their dogs and the truly homeless dogs that needs to be rescued.
To conclude, we are very disappointed that there was no public discussion allowed when this ordinance was passed. There has not been any kind of public information campaign. This ordinance is vague. There are so many unanswered questions. I have attached my blog in regards to questions about this ordinance. I request that all these questions be answered in a public forum. Thank you for allowing me to speak.”

Attached are the handouts that was given in the packet to the members of the Commission for the City of Chicago Animal Care and Control .

LDI Blog – Revisit the ordinance to reduce the stray hold period for cats and dogs in Chicago.

LDI Blog – Where Oh Where could my lost dog be held in Cook County

LDI Blog – Part 2 Where Oh Where could my lost dog be held in Cook County

LDI believes that knowledge is power. Be sure to read our blogs. Be informed. You are your animals’ advocate. They are depending on you! The Mayor and Aldermen have the power to change this ordinance. We ask that you continue to call, email, and even set up appointments to discuss your concerns. Continue to share the petition.

City of Chicago Aldermen

rahm.emanuel@cityofchicago.org Mayor

Together we can make an impact for Chicagoans and their loved cat and dog family members.

Former Director, Mitch Schneider