Praise From Shelter Staff
Here's what animal shelter staff are saying:
I attended a conference earlier this year where MPP Founder Kat Albrecht spoke. As a person who actively volunteers and is involved with animals, I learned new ideas. Yesterday I encouraged one of our other volunteers to try to locate the owner of the cat she found instead of just turning it over to animal control. She had the shelter staff scan it for a microchip and found that it was chipped! The staff members were in the process of reuniting the cat and its owners when I left the shelter last night. Thanks for instilling the idea in me that most stray animals are merely separated from their owners.
-- Debbie Reindl, Mount Laurel, NJ
Animal Welfare Association www.awanj.org
I'm the director of a local humane society that routinely recommends your website to our lost-and-found clients. This week I had the misfortune of having to use it for myself. A frightened little dog I had been fostering went to a new home in a nearby town. The morning after his adoption, he snuck out the door behind his adopter. She was frantic because he was too scared to let her catch him; he quickly disappeared into the neighborhood. I referred the adopter to your website to start working on signs while I took my dogs (the missing dog's best friends) out to look for him.
After reading more on your website about the behavior of xenophobic dogs, I came to the conclusion that he had to be holed up nearby. As temperatures plummeted and the snow and sleet continued to fall, we became demoralized. But AS SOON AS we hung big signs up in major intersections, we began to get calls. Through the calls and a door-to-door canvas, we were able to narrow his location down to the brushy hillside backyards between two streets. Streets and backyards, by the way, we had walked down a dozen times calling the dog's name--he had to have been watching us go by!
One day after our first calls, a nice lady set food out for the dog, noticed our signs, and called us. With her help, our animal control officer set a humane trap and had the little guy in custody within hours. He is now curled up on my couch with my dogs safe and sound. This is the second time I've had to help people search for their lost pets using MPP's online advice. Both times, MPP was absolutely correct and we recovered the animals. This is an invaluable service. THANK YOU!
-- Leslie Harris, Director
Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society
Leverett & Greenfield, Massachusetts
In 2003 our shelter (MSPCA) took 203 missing cat reports and followed up on all of them. Only 7 of those cats were ever found. After attending MPP founder Kat Albrecht's workshop on lost cat behaviors and reading her book (The Lost Pet Chronicles), I changed the way that MSPCA took lost cat reports. I included search techniques on the actual lost pet report so that when taking a call, staff would go over them with the owner of the missing cat. At the end of 2004 we had ended up talking to 207 owners of missing cats but this time 32 of the cats were found. Obviously there is still a lot of work that needs to be done but by simply coaching the owners over the phone we were able to increase the return rate significantly! Thanks Kat and Missing Pet Partnership!
Scott Giacoppo, Brockton, MA
MSPCA
I attended the Missing Animal Response course a few years ago when it was held in Boston. As an Animal Control Officer, I get many calls for missing animals. Due to the skills I learned in the MAR training I am able to educate folks about lost cat behavior and many cats have been trapped within days of getting out of their home. Recently, I had a man call regarding his lost dog. I instructed the man to put up the large fluorescent signs at all of the intersections around where he lived. Today, I got a call about a found dog. A lady had seen the signs; the dog had been hanging out in her neighborhood two towns away. Thank you Kat and Missing Pet Partnership for teaching me the skills to help reunite animals with their owners.
-- Leona Pease
Animal Control Officer, Shrewsbury, MA
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