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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Pet Harbor

Pet Harbor. Ever heard of it? I guess I would say that Pet Harbor is for animal shelters what Petfinder is for homeless animals in search of new homes.


If there’s one site that most (but sadly, not all) rescue organizations and municipal animal shelters use to post their adoptable pets, it would be Petfinder.com. The site uses good technology, and it’s been promoted well enough that it has become the website of choice for posting adoptable rescue animals. I see this as a good thing.

And if there’s one website that most animal shelters use to post pictures and information about the stray pets they take in and house (again, there isn’t!), then that website would be petharbor.com. Pet Harbor is also used for posting shelters’ adoptable pets, but the stray pets posting is what I concern myself with and what I’m referring to. I wouldn’t say that its technology or promotion, and therefore usage, is quite on a par with petfinder.com, but it’s “good enough”. Instructions for using the Pet Harbor website are at eHow, and you can find some statistical data about its traffic at faqs.org.

While there’s not really a substitute for going into a shelter and checking in person, by far the closest thing to that is checking petharbor.com. It’s not without its drawbacks and downsides, and it takes some exploration to figure out its navigation, but it should never be dismissed. It should be a standard part of every search for a missing pet. By that I mean checking it several times a day.

The job can easily be assigned to someone other than the dog’s frantic and depressed owner. In fact, it can be done by someone not anywhere near the area where the dog was lost if that person has a few good pictures of the dog to use for comparisons against the pictures of lost dogs in shelters that are posted to Pet Harbor. Many a lost dog owner has told me “I don’t know many people here since I only moved here a while ago, so no, I don’t have people that can help me with the search” to which I’ve responded in this way:

Do you have family, college roommates , former neighbors or anyone in your life that live in other parts of the country, but love you and want to help you when you need help? Are there people that would actually be hurt if you didn’t let them help you when you are down? Don’t YOU have friends in other parts of the country that you would want to help in times of need? Let one or two of those people help you by handling the Pet Harbor searching for your lost dog.”

In order to put Pet Harbor to the best use, check in with the shelters in your area that use it, and find out how often the shelter staff and volunteers post to it, and in general, how seriously THEY take it. Hopefully you will find that they update it several times a day. If so, then you should have someone checking it several times a day during any lost dog search.

I operate with people that search through Pet Harbor and Craigslist every day, and who have therefore helped MANY strangers reunite with their lost dogs by telling them something that they didn’t know: that their dog is at the shelter. Often, a person files a lost dog report with the shelter and they then feel they have “checked the box” and they never check back, or even plan to, because they assume they will get a call if the dog makes its way in to the shelter. Many people never learn that they can check the shelter dogs with Pet Harbor.

So if you feel like being a hero, get in the habit of checking Pet Harbor as soon as you learn about a dog that has gone missing. Eventually it will pay off!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Fliers in Residental Mailboxes

I think most people have heard, somewhere along the way, that it’s illegal to put missing pet (or any) fliers in mail boxes – right? You probably don’t actually question it, but if you’re like me, you’d really like to see the code that spells it out. And I have it for you.

There are several codes to look at to get the full picture. You want to look at Title 18, Section 1725, which you can find at: http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/18C83.txt. (This is on the US House of Representatives' website.) Here’s how it reads:

TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 83 - POSTAL SERVICE
Sec. 1725. Postage unpaid on deposited mail matter

-STATUTE- Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter, on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.

And here’s a more reader-friendly version, on the Cornell University Law School site:


Click for a larger view

Then you also want to look on the US Postal Service’s website at the Domestic Mail Manual, then search on “Customer Mail Receptacles”, the second and third paragraphs. Get straight to it by going to: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/508.htm. The important parts are where it says:

Door slots and non-lockable bins or troughs used with apartment house mailboxes are not letterboxes within the meaning of 18 USC 1725 and are not private mail receptacles for the standards for mailable matter not bearing postage found in or on private mail receptacles. The post or other support is not part of the receptacle
and
no part of a mail receptacle may be used to deliver any matter not bearing postage, including items or matter placed upon, supported by, attached to, hung from, or inserted into a mail receptacle. Any mailable matter not bearing postage and found as described above is subject to the same postage as would be paid if it were carried by mail.”

Here’s a visual for you:

Click for a larger view

And last, though I couldn’t find an the actual bulletin, I found a quote that was in a USPS Postal Bulletin, Issue 21861, 2-17-94, p. 37 (wouldn’t you know that the USPS started putting its bulletins online in 1995), entitled "Mailable Matter in or on Private Mail Receptacles” which reads as follows:

"Mailable matter not bearing postage found in or on private mail receptacles represents a revenue deficiency to the Postal Service and is a violation of federal law. Title 18 United States Code, section 1725, provides for a fine of not more than $300 per piece for these violations. All employees must uniformly enforce the procedures detailed in the Domestic Mail Manual, section P011.2.0. The failure to enforce these procedures uniformly may jeopardize the criminal prosecution of repeated violators."

You may also find this page helpful:  http://www.lplists.com/mail-off.htm

What's your interpretation? Mine is -- steer clear of residential mailboxes! But feel free to put them in a newspaper box, in a mail slot, or at the front door, such as hanging in a bag on the knob, or rolled up and threaded through the handle.

Here's an important point for pet detectives or for organized volunteers assisting in a specific search -- remember to cover this important regulation with the missing pet's people early in the game. I once stepped in to a search late on the very afternoon that the dog's people had spent hours, before my arrival and before we could talk, putting fliers into mailboxes in the rural area where the dog had been seen. That night, she recieved an angry email from a resident who had found a flier in her mailbox, stating that he was filing a complaint with the post office since it's illegal to put fliers in mailboxes. Sure enough he did, on Monday. The lost dog's person got off easy, with a warning from a postal worker who obviously hated being placed in the position of having to contact her. But she did break a law. And this was very awkward for me since volunteering to assist people search for and recover their lost dogs is what I do, so I can't be any part of breaking federal, or local, laws.

It was a lesson for me . . . however the problem is that there are a TON of important points that all need to be covered with the people as the first item of business when starting to help someone search for their missing pet!