Most of us know someone, or has heard stories having missing pets sometime in their life, but what do you do if your furry friend runs off without you?
Brent Barr is the business director at neighbourhood pet clinic, and also founded London Lost Pets almost ten years ago.
“London Lost Pets.ca is a website, but it also works like an amber alert system for lost pets” says Barr.
Since 2010 London Lost Pets has helped thousands of people in London and the surrounding area. Barr says thanks to one conversation years ago with a fellow employee, they decided to start the service.
“It turned out to be a really great conversation about the number of pets that are lost in a day, and the number of posters we get brought into our clinic.”
Because of this, they felt like it was only right to try and do something positive, and try to use the power of social media to their advantage.
“Long story short we said ‘I wonder if we can turn social media into something of real value’?, and decided to start the site, and it has been quite the whirlwind.”
Due to the sites quick success, the city of London decided to give all of their lost pet notices to Barr and his team.
“The city had their own website for lost pets, and within about a year and a half the city called and said that they would be giving all of their notices to us now because it’s working so much better.”
With over 10,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter who all get notified once a pet has gone missing.
“If they’re out in the parks or walking down the street and they see that little one, they can bring it home.”
So just how many reports of missing pets does Barr and his team receive?
“The estimates are that there’s about seven to ten dogs and cats lost in every given day.”
That includes London, St. Thomas and other surrounding areas.
“We probably get three to four that get posted to our site, the others do all the old ways that we used to do it” says Barr.
MICROCHIPS
Because of missing pets, some people tend to get their pets micro chipped. A microchip is a little chip, about the size of a grain of rice that is implanted underneath the skin of the animal. Each chip has a number that’s detected using a scanner, which can help locate a missing pet.
Barr has noticed a slight increase in people coming in to get their pets chipped.
“I would say there has been a slight uptick in the use of microchips over the last couple of years, if you go back ten years ago, there’s a little bit more now.”
Barr is a huge believer in micro chips, and says that there’s almost no negatives to them.
“The only negative that typically arises from it would be a little bit of pain where it goes in, and a little bit of swelling where it goes in.”
If your furry friend decides to run off for a solo adventure, make sure to post online and check social media, you never know whose out there looking.
