FROM THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF ELMORE COUNTY
Many folks are off for a long weekend celebrating the 4th, and we hope all who are pet owners have made preparations to keep their pets and livestock safe during all the festivities and fireworks. To reiterate, the BEST place for pets during fireworks is INSIDE their home safe and sound. But if something happens and your efforts fail, what do you do if your pet escapes and becomes lost.
First – don’t delay looking for your pet. Too many people call us days or even a week or more later stating that ‘they usually come home in a couple of days.” From experience we can tell you that pet owners who immediately start searching exponentially increase the chances of finding their pet.
In this day and age of social media, we can advise that pet owners use all social media at their disposal to let neighbors and people in your area know your pet is missing. Post photos and information about your lost pet on your personal page as well (make sure to make it ‘public’) as a finder might just go to your page to validate your ownership. Make sure your posts say where (street/neighborhood, city, state) your pet is missing from and for how long so as to not confuse people when your post ends up shared in a different county or even a completely different state. Add a phone number on your posts so people with information can get in touch with you immediately – that means you have to then answer phone numbers you do not know. Until your pet is found, update your post often to keep your pet’s information fresh in reader’s minds. And if your pet is found – please also update that so people won’t continue looking for a pet that is no longer missing.
Call your supporting Shelter soonest if you lose or find a pet – for our Shelter, Humane Society of Elmore County, call us at 334-567-3377 and leave a message if we are closed. On Facebook we diligently monitor “Lost & Found Pets in Elmore County, AL” so you can trust that if you post there, we are seeing it. Most cities and counties have their own Lost & Found Pet pages so make use of all in the area surrounding your lost pet’s last known location. You can also email information and pics to us at [email protected] as we do print all of those and keep in our Lost & Found files and will check email even on the days we are closed.
For finders – given that so many of us don’t answer unknown phone numbers, if you think you have found someone’s missing pet, it may be best to text info and pics. Don’t delay taking the found pet to most any Veterinarian or Shelter to be scanned for a microchip as increasing numbers of pets are microchipped these days. And please don’t jump to conclusions about a pet’s condition as you have no idea how long that pet may have been missing or that it spent the last two days in brambles and mud. Finders do not have the legal right to refuse to give a pet back to its legal owner and if true neglect or cruelty is suspected then you must get law enforcement/animal control involved. It is also considered extortion (a crime) if you refuse to give a pet back to an owner unless they pay a fee (of course, owners – if you have offered a reward, please do pay up if your pet is found safe and sound). Also for finders – that pet is NOT yours to rehome/giveaway/sell. Finders HAVE to make all reasonable efforts to help a pet be reunited with its owner and there are no legal number of days for private citizens like there is for bonafied Shelters. If contested in a courtroom it will come down to a question of did both the owner and the finder make all reasonable efforts to reunite the pet with its proper owner. This is one reason we often recommend the pet come to the Shelter as we are in the business of verifying and reuniting pets and have decades of experience doing so.
So please keep ID (tags/microchips) on your pets and keep them safe at home so you will have no need to avail of all the above pointers. Please have a safe and happy 4th of July!
