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Monday, October 15, 2012

Think Lost, Not Stray!

This post is one for when you really have the time to invest in learning about the Missing Pet Partnership's "Think Lost, Not Stray!" message. It's an important message, and if you are helping people find their missing pets, you should know all about it.

This presentation runs almost 1 1/2 hours; it was presented by Kat Albrecht at a Best Friends conference in 2009. Below the link to the conference, I'm providing the outline for a significant part of the presentation. My next blog entry will present the remainder of it -- the comparative analysis of lost pet/lost person searches

Click to start the presentation whenever you are ready, and you can follow below in a separate window if you want:  http://www.bestfriends.org/recordings/thinklostnotstray/index.html



Missing Pet Partnership Copyright © 2009
THINK LOST, NOT STRAY!
Presenter: Kathy “Kat” Albrecht
Founder, Missing Pet Partnership
www.missingpetpartnership.org
E-mail: kat@pethunters.com

Every dog and cat that escapes from the care of its guardian is a "stray" that contributes to the overcrowding of our shelters. A great majority of the stray dogs that end up in shelters were not born in the wild nor were they living in wild packs. Most escaped from a home where they were cared for by someone who simply failed to keep the animal contained. You’ll learn how behaviors contribute to drastically low RTO rates of shelter cats and how shelters can reduce euthanasia rates of unclaimed strays (dogs and cats) through innovative lost animal services, education, and prevention techniques.

I. INTRODUCTION
A. Brief History / Background
B. Why Lost Pets? (Industry focus is currently on spay/neuter and forever home adoptions. Sadly, there’s very little effort invested in returning lost companion animals to their original homes)



II. WHAT IS A “STRAY?”

A. To wander about without a destination or purpose; to be loose and roaming.
1. A stray dog or cat DOES NOT mean it is a “homeless” animal or an animal without a guardian…it simply is a companion animal who has escaped custody of his caregiver.
B. STRAY DOGS: In most cases, a stray dog is a missing/lost dog that has not yet be found by his guardian.
C. STRAY CATS: A stray cat can be an untamed feral cat, an escaped house cat, or a displaced cat whose guardian is not known. All three categories can exhibit the same “feral like” behavior (hissing, spitting, growing, twirling in case). Sadly, mistakes on determining whether a cat is “feral” vs. a panicked domesticated cat are common (ZEKE story + VIDEO)



III. WHY ARE SO MANY STRAYS UNCLAIMED?

A. Lack of a Central Clearinghouse (see “Lost Pet / Lost Person Comparative Analysis” handout)
B. Shelter logistics (hours, location)
C. Shelter policies (fine involved, must come down to shelter)
D. Physical limitations (disabled, elderly, no transportation)
E. Emotional limitations (grief avoidance, shelter phobic, hopeless)
F. Discouragement (from untrained professionals)
G. Cultural limitations (language barriers, cultural ignorance, fear of uniforms)
H. Searching at wrong location (multiple shelters, timing of the entry into the shelter)
I. Human and animal behaviors are a major contributing factor to permanent the displacement of lost companion animals! (Refer to “The Lost Pet Triad”)
J. Tunnel Vision (cat owner believed animal communicator instead of standard search advice – even with previous experience of a cat taken to a shelter!)
K. Expecting grieving, broken-hearted people who have no hope to continue a sustained search effort without offering assistance contributes to high euthanasia rates!

IV. WHAT FACTORS INHIBIT THE RECOVERY OF LOST COMPANION ANIMALS?

A. The moment a dog or cat escapes from his guardian’s care, the terminology used for that animal and how people (rescuers) respond to that animal DRASTICALLY CHANGE
B. Vernacular used by rescuers (“I found a dumped stray” instead of “I found a lost dog”) influences their behavior and ultimately what happens to the dog (i.e. re-homed with no efforts to re-unite)
C. Lost companion animals viewed as “sad” by shelters but not as a serious contributing factor to the amount of unclaimed strays they hold in their cages and then euthanize
D. Pet Detectives viewed with suspicion or as a joke (or not even heard of at all)
E. THE FIRST PLACE that guardians are told to “search” for their lost dog or cat is typically THE LAST PLACE where a found dog or cat will be taken (i.e. the city pound). Compare this to lost/found people (central clearinghouse called “9-1-1”).
F. Cats that are panicked, sick, or injured will hide in silence (behavior called “The Silence Factor”) to protect themselves from predators. These cats will not be found by their guardians unless they physically search their neighbor’s yards and/or utilize baited humane traps. The fact that these specific techniques are rarely taken contributes to low reclaim (and high euthanasia) rates of stray cats in our shelters.
G. What a rescuer THINKS and BELIEVES about a found dog or cat influences HOW THEY BEHAVE and WHAT ACTION THEY WILL OR WON’T TAKE. We make “implicit associations” and make snap decisions automatically based on what we have been led to believe such as this dog was dumped or this skittish cat is feral (see “Think Lost, Not Stray” handout).

V. MISSING ANIMAL RESPONSE SERVICES TO INCREASE REUNIONS

A. Physical Searches by professionals (MAR Technicians) with trained search dogs, hightech
equipment, and training in how to solve investigations
B. Lost Dog Protests using volunteers with LOST DOG signs near escape point (VIDEO)
C. Reverse investigation/efforts (posting giant FOUND DOG florescent flyers, interviewing
neighbors) by volunteers to solve the mystery of WHO LOST THIS (caged) DOG?
D. Tagging vehicle windows (see photo example at www.missingpetpartnership.org home
page slide show) to mass market a lost dog
E. Refer Guardians to lost pet resources
1. www.missingpetpartnership.org – species specific lost pet recovery tips and network of trained volunteer and professional lost pet recovery resources
2. www.craigslist.com – social network for posting lost/found pets
3. www.petfinder.com (sustained search for ADOPTABLE DOGS weeks or months after escape)
4. www.petharbor.com, www.pets911.com, www.dogdetective.com, etc, etc.

VI. PREVENTING LOST COMPANION ANIMAL ENTRY INTO SHELTERS

A. Microchip / Tag / Containment System Education
1. Cat Fence In Products – Coyote Rollers
2. Most obvious and common effort
B. Referral to Pet Detective Services and Web sites
1. www.missingpetpartnership.org – national directory of pet detectives and behavior/species specific recovery tips
2. Testimonials (SUHKI CASE / ODIE CASE)
C. Establish a Volunteer Trap-and-Reunite (TAR) Program
1. Displaced cats do NOT “run away” – they hide in silence (often near their escape point)
2. Volunteers use humane traps, baby monitors, and surveillance methods to recover “lost” cats who are hiding
3. If not captured, these cats ultimately end up in feral cats colonies or shelters (months later, long after family has stopped searching)
4. The failure of cat owners to recover their displaced cats IS A MAJOR REASON WHY OUR NATIONAL RTO RATES FOR CATS ARE DISMALLY LOW (2%)

D. Lost Pet Search-and-Rescue Teams
1. Physical searches for lost companion animals (service fee or to foster new donors)
2. Proper Posters (ODIE CASE)
3. Counseling/assistance (even transportation) for those who have lost an animal
4. Shelter Cross checks (volunteers in distant communities)
5. LOST DOG protests
6. Network of Taggers to mass market lost dogs
7. Craig’s List and other web site cross checks
8. Night Patrols to recover displaced cats (requires a car, a spotlight, and someone who loves cats!)

E. Missing Pet Partnership’s Vision for the Future
1. MPP will rescue dogs from shelters, train them to locate lost pets, and issue them to partnering shelters and rescue groups
2. Through partnerships, MPP will facilitate the development of volunteer Missing Animal Response teams in communities across the USA
3. Ten years from now, guardians will know they can call on resources that include professionally trained volunteers and search dogs to help them search for their lost pets
4. The reality, however, is that this vision will take TIME and FUNDING. Please support Missing Pet Partnership. Visit our web site and become a MEMBER!

VII. CONCLUSION

Experience has shown that there are many reasons why people fail to show up at their local shelter in time to claim their lost animals. So what would happen if shelters referred guardians to reliable lost pet recovery services? What would happen if shelters developed a program where volunteers did everything within their power to find the guardians of stray dogs and cats within the 72-hour holding period? What if instead of passively waiting for a lost dog or cat to show up in the local shelter, volunteers and guardians went into the community and aggressively searched for lost dogs and cats?

How much would shelter euthanasia levels drop and how high would return-to-owner rates soar if instead of immediately looking for “forever homes” for strays, we instead slowed down and worked to find the “original home” where that dog or cat escaped from? The answer is that we will never know until we try!



Here is a PDF of the presentation:
http://bestfriends.s3.amazonaws.com/nmhpconf/2009/ThinkLostNotStray1.pdf