As someone that helps people find their lost dogs, you want to be equipped with as much background understanding as you can have about missing pets and searching for them. This is a pretty good overview, well worth your time. Be sure you see the previous post on this blog before you begin listening to this audio presentation.
Missing Pet Partnership Copyright © 2009
LOST PET / LOST PERSON COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS:
How We Look for Lost People vs. Lost Pets
By Kat Albrecht
Copyright 2007© All Rights Reserved
1. LOST PEOPLE: Central clearinghouse consistent across nation (9-1-1)
LOST PETS: There is no central clearinghouse -- there are massive locations where a found (stray) could end up (local pound, humane society, rescue group facilities, volunteer homes of rescue groups, self-adopted by independent rescuer, etc.).
2. LOST PEOPLE: Typically the family receives sympathy and support (especially in child abduction or high-profile cases)
LOST PETS: Typically pet owner experience "disenfranchised grief" (grief that is publicly unacceptable) where they are shunned by friends, co-workers and family who have a weak (or non-existent) human-animal bond and who tell the pet owner to "just get over it," "you'll never find your dog," "it was just a cat" or "just go to the pound and get another one."
3. LOST PEOPLE: Typically the family is not openly blamed, even if accident resulted in death of a child.
LOST PETS: Typically, the pet owner is blamed and considered "irresponsible" for their dog or cat running loose, even if it was a clear accident beyond their control.
4. LOST PEOPLE: When a lost child is found, rescuers do not consider keeping it and in most cases, it is not turned over to child protective services so that "a better family" can be found.
LOST PETS: When a lost dog is found, it is quite common for the rescuer to self-adopt the dog or turn it over to an organization that will find the dog a new home (without ever attempting to return the dog to the original owner).
5. LOST PEOPLE: When a child is lost, trained resources will respond immediately to the location, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
LOST PETS: When a pet is lost, there is no one to call, no one to respond to assist in the search efforts—you can call a pet sitter, mobile veterinarian, and even a dog poop scoop company to come to your house but when your pet is lost, sorry, you are on your own.
6. LOST PEOPLE: The burden is on the police agency to take action, not on the family member (to find their lost family member).
LOST PETS: Burden is on the pet owner to take action to find their lost pet—and relying on people who are untrained in lost pet behavior or in the differences of how to search for a missing dog vs. a missing cat is a major contributing factor to the homeless pet population.
7. LOST PEOPLE: Assistance offered whether it is asked for or not!
LOST PETS: Assistance is typically refused (by animal shelters, the local police, even TNR and rescue groups) when a pet owner calls and asks someone to come out and help them search for their missing pets…even when pet owner pleads for it!
8. LOST PEOPLE: In many cities across the USA there are three levels of services available:
(a) law enforcement officers conduct an investigation
(b) volunteer search-and-rescue teams are deployed to assist in the search
(c) outside nonprofits are used to supplement investigation (Polly Klaas Foundation, Child Quest, etc.).
LOST PETS: Pet owners are very lucky if they can even find a pet detective in their area, let alone afford the current fees charged for their services.
9. LOST PEOPLE: Research has been conducted to analyze lost person behavior and search managers use the data from that research to strategically deploy the proper resources during search-and-rescue operations.
LOST PETS: No research has been conducted on the behavioral patterns of missing dogs and cats (even though the data is readily available)
10. LOST PEOPLE: Search-and-rescue managers use principles like "Search Probability Theory" and "Deductive Reasoning" to develop conclusions on how and where to search for lost people.
LOST PETS: Reasoning is seldom used when searching for lost pets -- untrained pet owners instead are following gut instincts and using NO reasoning (when they should use deductive reasoning!) and they do everything from stapling dirty underwear to trees to leaving “a scent trail for their pet to follow" and other acts of desperation
11. LOST PEOPLE: National nonprofit exists exclusively for purpose of missing children education and assistance (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, founded by John Walsh).
LOST PETS: Before Missing Pet Partnership was developed, no nonprofit existed exclusively for purpose of missing pet education or in helping to develop community-based lost pet services.
12. LOST PEOPLE: System in place and aggressive attempts will be made to positively identify people -- even DEAD people (dental records, finger prints, driver's license, social security card, tattoo records, etc.)
LOST PETS: Microchip systems are in place that could be used to positively identify pets but is only used by a small fraction of pet owners.
13. LOST PEOPLE: The problem of "Homeless" people is not being addressed through aggressive birth control education or adoption events for unwanted babies. There are many reasons why people become homeless (depression, mental illness, drug or alcohol addictions, loss of income, tragedy, etc.) and services have been developed to deal with each of these issues that contribute to the problem of humans who are homeless.
LOST PETS: The problem of "Homeless Pets" is primarily being addressed through aggressive spay/neuter education or adoption events for unwanted dogs and cats. However, there are many reasons why dogs and cats become homeless, including lost and displaced pets that are never found.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Homicides, burglaries, robberies, and many other crimes stem from the prolific drug trade and individual drug addiction problems. Gangs and drug trafficers will commit murder over drugs and many thieves are either users or suppliers of drugs. Measures used to cut back on burglaries include aggressive enforcement of drug laws (federal, local, and state funding and programs), cross checking databases of known drug abusers to solve burglary and armed robbery investigations, public education of crime (theft and robbery) prevention programs, and public use of burglary and robbery alarms. The problem of murders, burglaries and robberies is addressed using preventative measures (drug enforcement, crime prevention) as well as reactive measures (investigating a homicide, cross checking databases, etc.). If homicides, robberies, and burglaries were never investigated with one of the primary roots of their cause (drugs) in mind, we would have far fewer cases solved and crime rates would soar. Attacking the pet overpopulation problem by strictly focusing on spay/neuter issues while ignoring one of the primary root causes (lost dogs and cats that are never recovered) has resulted in a drastically low “return to owner rate” of lost pets as well as a pet overpopulation problem that is out-of-control.
This comparative analysis can also be found at: http://bestfriends.s3.amazonaws.com/nmhpconf/2009/ThinkLostNotStray1.pdf
