Lost

Lost Dogs

According to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, only 15 percent of dogs taken into U.S. animal shelters as strays each year are reunited with their owners. The reason is shockingly simple—too many owners fail to tag or microchip their animals.

Things to do if you have LOST your pet

If you have lost your pet, there are many things you can do; see suggestions below. But there are a couple of items that are time-critical and must be done ASAP:

1. Check cars, sheds, and any other enclosed spaces your pet could inadvertently have gotten locked into. According to the ASPCA, on an 85º day a car’s interior can reach a dangerous 120º within 30 minutes, so if your pet accidentally got locked in a car, you don’t have much time.

2. Visit the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control & Rescue Center’s Companion Animal Alliance (CAA) shelter (or your local animal shelter) at least every other day; daily if possible. It's important to go look in person rather than calling. Ask to see the animals yourself; staff at front desk are very busy and may not yet have seen the latest animals to come in. Also, leave a flyer with the front desk.

The hold time (until stray animals can be put up for adoption or euthanized) at the East Baton Rouge Parish facility is now only 3 days, which is why it's extremely important to check the shelter frequently. The EBRP shelter is located at 2680 Progress Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70807 (near the airport); directions and map at http://brgov.com/dept/animal/. Call 225-774-7701 for hours of operation, and to make sure you know what proof of ownership and fees to bring with you so you can take your pet home if it’s there.

3. Visit veterinary offices around area where your pet was last seen; check their “found pet” flyers and leave them one of yours.

4. Prepare your “Lost” ad; include pet's picture, detailed description, location and date last seen, and your contact information.

5. Don’t forget paper flyers—they work!

•Keep an eye out for “found pet” flyers matching your pet.
•Post flyers around the area where your pet was lost; try this handy flyer-making tool.
•Create quarter sheet flyers to tape to your neighbors' mailboxes.
•Six tips for a more effective sign -- see article at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2012/06/lost-dog-poster-tips.html
•Also post a flyer at your local animal shelter.
•Go to your local copy shop and have them make a poster-sized “Lost Pet” sign with picture of your pet, to put in your front yard.

6. Place a lost pet ad in the Advocate or your local paper, and check found pet ads daily.

7. If your pet is microchipped, www.homeagain.com also offers a fee-based alert service.

8. Email pet’s picture to CAA’s dedicated lost pets address at [email protected]. Please also include the following information:

•Pet’s name
•Breed or mix
•Approximate age
•Microchip info
•Spay/neuter status
•WHERE and WHEN your pet went missing
•Best phone number at which to reach you.

After you’ve sent the email, go to the shelter and see for yourself! Bring pictures of pet to leave with shelter staff. Many animals come into CAA daily so there is no substitute for you looking.

9. Post on Lost Pets of Baton Rouge (in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA) or your local Lost Pets Facebook page (see below).

•You can post directly to our timeline, although there may be difficulties attempting to post from a mobile device. If that happens, try posting from a computer or if that’s not possible, you can message us the picture/info via Facebook and we will post it for you. Please include a contact telephone number and/or email address to be included in the Facebook post.
•Make sure picture’s privacy controls are set to “public.”
•We will share your post to our page; please add a comment to the shared post to help you follow replies by others.
•If you do not see your post shared within a few hours (during the day) or early the next morning (if you posted at night), please message us. However, please keep in mind our page is run by volunteers who fit this into our regular work and family responsibilities. Also, we do not share posts at night because we have found those tend to be seen by fewer people than posts shared during the day, so we wait until morning to share those.
•Click on “Photos” and look through our albums for pictures resembling your lost pet.
For pets lost/found outside East Baton Rouge Parish
Ascension Parish Lost Pets of Ascension Parish
East Baton Rouge--Central Lost Pets of Central City, La
East Baton Rouge--Zachary Lost Pets of Zachary, La
East Feliciana Parish Lost Pets of St. Francisville AND Lost Pets of Zachary, La
Iberville Parish Lost Pets of Iberville Parish
Livingston Parish Lost Pets of Livingston Parish
St. Helena Parish Lost Pets of St. Francisville AND Lost Pets of Livingston Parish
West Baton Rouge Parish Lost Pets of West Baton Rouge
West Feliciana Parish Lost Pets of St. Francisville AND Lost Pets of Zachary, La
ALL OTHER PARISHES/COUNTIES: please search Facebook, Google, and Craigslist for lost/found pet resources nearest you. See the list of "Likes" on right side of our page for links to lost pet Facebook pages serving other areas, or do a Google search using "Facebook lost pets" and the name of your city as the search terms. Our "Lost pet to-do list" and "Found a pet?" info tabs also have suggestions that are applicable anywhere.

10. Other online places to post your lost pet:

•Post fliers and pictures on your personal Facebook page.
•Search Craigslist “pets” at http://batonrouge.craigslist.org/pet/ and “lost & found” at http://batonrouge.craigslist.org/laf/ for found pet ads, and create a LOST ad in both sections. Re-post your ad once it starts to fall too far down the page.
•If your neighborhood civic association or other local group runs a listserve or Facebook group, send them your flier.
•Send a mass email to your contacts.
•Pet Amber Alert (www.petamberalert.com) for lost and found pets: There is a fee to list a lost pet, but no charge to list a found pet. IMPORTANT: Before spending your money on this or any other fee-based pet recovery service, please investigate them carefully and make sure you have exhausted all of the things you can do for free.
•Use websites such as www.fidofinder.com, www.foundandlostpets.com, http://www.lostandfoundhound.com/, http://www.thepetrescue.com/index.html, etc. to search for ads of found pets that might match yours. You can post pet sightings, lost and found pets at Helping Lost Pets here: http://www.helpinglostpets.com/Default.html#Sighting

11. Last but no less important -- lost pets behave in certain predictable ways, and you can use that knowledge to help find them. Read this article to learn how: www.maddiesfund.org/what-you-dont-know-about-lost-pets-can-hurt-them.htm

(If the article doesn’t appear to load when you click on above link, grab scroll bar on right side of your browser and scroll all the way up to bring article into view, or you can also copy the link and paste it into the address field of your web browser.)

When you (hopefully) find your pet, microchip him/her at your vet's office and register your pet with the microchip provider's database. Typical cost is under $50 and well worth the investment. Unlike tags on a collar, this is internal identification that can't come off. But tags and a collar don’t need special equipment to be read, so for best results use both internal (chip) AND external (tags) identification.