Seattle Pet Hunters
HUNTER: (noun) 1a: One who pursues with intent to find or capture b: a dog used or trained for hunting
Missing Pet Partnership is proud to announce the formation of Seattle Pet Hunters, a volunteer pilot program designed to reunite lost companion animals with their families in King County, Washington. The term "pet hunter" is used intentionally. Most families who've lost a companion animal are simply NOT using the proper search strategies, techniques, or resources required to find a missing pet. Most people post 8 ˝ X 11 flyers (which actually cannot be read by drivers passing by) and they passively wait for someone to call them if they have seen their lost pet. These people typically feel hopeless and helpless, and they quickly give up, never finding their missing dog or cat. Those companion animals end up somewhere, most often in local (or distant) shelters or rescue groups where they contribute to high euthanasia rates. Missing Pet Partnership has a philosophy for finding lost pets that makes perfect sense. It is the same philosophy involved in looking for missing people: If you want to find a lost person, you need to physically SEARCH (hunt) for them!
Seattle Pet Hunters volunteers conduct aggressive, physical searches for lost pets using trained search dogs, high-tech equipment, and CSI-like investigative techniques to solve lost pet investigations. You can read about some of our Seattle-area cases on our investigations page. The Federal Way Mirror came out recently on one of our investigations and published the following story. If you live near Seattle and you'd like to volunteer for MPP (fundraising, pet detective work, administrative, etc.) e-mail us at question@pethunters.com.
Seattle Pet Hunters Calendar of Events
We will add to this calendar as events and trainings are confirmed, so please check back. You can always confirm an event by calling our office at (253) 529-3999.
Tuesday July 1, 2008 - 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - VOLUNTEER TRAINING (prepare for 4th of July dog captures). Kent Senior Activity Center, Room #6, 600 E. Smith Street, Kent, WA (southeast corner of Smith & Kennebeck, across from Wendy's).
Saturday July 5th and Sunday July 6th, 2008 - 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. – LOST PET BOOTH. Look for our booth in the parking lot of the Kent Animal Shelter, 21615 64th Ave South, Kent, WA (between 228th and 212th Streets). MPP will offer lost dog recovery advice, hands on assistance (if we have enough volunteers), FREE giant posters (REWARD LOST DOG, FOUND DOG, and REWARD LOST CAT), shelter checks, Intersection alerts, and lots of encouragement! Come visit our booth if you need assistance or if you’d like to drop off a donation or volunteer to help us recover lost pets.
Tuesday July 15, 2008 - 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - VOLUNTEER MEETING. Kent Senior Activity Center, Room #8, 600 E. Smith Street, Kent, WA (southeast corner of Smith & Kennebeck, across from Wendy's).
Wednesday July 16, 2008 - 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Location - Sammamish Farmer's Market, Sammamish Commons Park (801 228th Ave SE, Sammamish, WA) - Come meet MPP pet detective volunteers and sign up to be a volunteer pet detective!
Tuesday July 29, 2008 - 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - VOLUNTEER MEETING - Kent Senior Activity Center, Room #8, 600 E. Smith Street, Kent, WA (southeast corner of Smith & Kennebeck, across from Wendy's).
Friday August 8 to Wednesday August 13, 2008 - Federal Way, WA - Clarion Hotel, 31611 20th Ave S, Federal Way, WA - Missing Animal Response Technician certification course (volunteer training runs from Friday August 8th through Sunday August 10th). You must register to attend.
Wednesday August 20, 2008 - 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. - Location - Sammamish Farmer's Market, Sammamish Commons Park (801 228th Ave SE, Sammamish, WA) - Come meet MPP pet detective volunteers and sign up to be a volunteer pet detective!
Saturday September 6, 2008 - Location/Time TBA - PAWS (Progressive Animal Welfare Society) Walk Fundraiser - Come meet MPP pet detective volunteers and sign up to be a volunteer pet detective!
Wednesday September 24, 2008 - 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. - Location - Sammamish Farmer's Market, Sammamish Commons Park (801 228th Ave SE, Sammamish, WA) - Come meet MPP pet detective volunteers and sign up to be a volunteer pet detective!
*For the North SeaTac Park MAR K9 dog trainings meet in the northeast parking lot (access the large parking lot on S 128th St at 20th Ave S., around the corner from Des Moines Memorial Drive), which is north of the playfields if you www.mapquest.com the address (13600 Des Moines Memorial Drive). The parking lot is the racetrack-looking parking lot northeast of where the star is on the map. We meet at the very south end of the parking lot. Look for yellow "PET DETECTIVE TRAINING" signs at the entrance of the park. Further inquiries may be directed to MPP's training office in Federal Way at (253) 529-3999. Observers are invited to come out and observe and network. Even if you don't plan to train a dog to find lost pets, there are many other ways to volunteer for Missing Pet Partnership, including helping to work the search dogs that we have already trained.
In April 2008, Seattle-based volunteer Carol Hawley was gracious enough to donate her photography skills to MPP. Carol attended our first Seattle Pet Hunters MAR dog evaluations and photographed the evaluation of twelve dogs for our MAR program. She then developed these into an inspirational slide show, which we hope you’ll enjoy! Carol’s photography is just amazing. You can visit her web site at www.agalleryvisit.com.
*Our pages are copyright-protected. To share our lost pet information with others, please link or refer people to our website. To request permission to reprint material from our site, please contact us.