(PRESS RELEASE) WENATCHEE, WA — PetHub, Inc. and the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA) collaborated with the assistance of ’cause Digital Marketing to survey animal welfare professionals and U.S. pet owners about their perceptions of lost dog prevention and reunion strategies. PetHub and NACA compared the responses of the two survey groups to identify the similarities and differences in how pet owners and animal welfare professionals utilize lost pet prevention and recovery methods, and to determine the gaps in perception that need to be addressed by the industry. These findings emphasize the importance of PetHub’s Lost Pet Prevention Month (LPPM) and will influence the strategies, content and tools provided to pet parents to help pets return home quicker and safer.
“Overcrowding is a prevalent issue faced by animal shelters across the country,” said Jerrica Owen, executive director at NACA. “Our joint survey with PetHub revealed that more than 4 million dogs are lost annually, yet only 1.3 million are found in 24 hours, which results in nearly 3 million dogs being at risk of entering a shelter. According to survey respondents, the average time to find a lost dog was 28.2 days. Our goal is to combat this ongoing problem through our collaboration with PetHub and their innovative lost pet recovery tools such as QR coded pet ID tags. I’ll be providing more insight about this on the Pet Lover Geek podcast episode airing on July 15.”
Additional findings and insights about lost pet prevention and reunification perceptions and strategies uncovered from the joint study included:
There is a gap between the perceptions of animal welfare professionals and pet parents about why dogs are becoming lost in the first place. According to pet owners, the top three reasons pets became lost were due to running out the door, getting out of the backyard and wandering off. However, there was very little to no consensus among animal welfare professionals about the top three reasons that pets become lost. All of these situations are likely preventable with the proper prevention methods, which supports the need for lost pet prevention education in communities.
Another gap identified was what animal welfare organizations were doing with their return-to-home efforts and their teams’ knowledge about these efforts. Almost 75% of respondents either don’t know if their organization does or does not implement reunification strategies such as implanting microchips, offering low-cost ID tags or utilizing social media.
According to dog owners, the top three most effective return-to-home methods were physically searching, social posting and notifying shelters. They ranked pet ID tags and databases as the fifth most effective method of bringing home lost dogs. Interestingly, the ranking of smart ID tags was higher for dog owners who already take advantage of visible technology-powered identification tools. These respondents ranked it as the 2nd most effective method for lost pet recovery. Yet, this method was ranked eighth by animal welfare professionals. Interestingly, animal welfare professionals ranked microchips as the most effective method, but it wasn’t one of the top five methods for pet owners. However, despite the high numbers of dog owners using pet identification, few pet owners actually take advantage of the lost pet alert features of digital tag services, which emphasizes the need for raising awareness.
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“It was important for us to work closely with NACA to identify how our industry can improve lost pet recovery in the United States to help pets return home quickly and safely with minimal impact to shelters,” said Lorien Clemens, co-founder and CEO of PetHub. “Educating pet parents has been a priority for PetHub for years. We launched Lost Pet Prevention Month in 2014 to provide useful resources, tools and best practices for lost pet prevention and reunification. We’ve helped more than 100,000 lost pets return to their families safely, and of those, 96% have been reunited in under 24 hours. We will use insight gained from the survey findings to enhance our work with the municipalities, shelters and veterinarians we work with across the country to build custom identification programs that provide more than a tag and help keep animals out of shelters.”
For more information about the “Bridging the Gap: 2022 Lost Pet Research Study,” fill out the form here. New educational resources about lost pet prevention and reunification will be available on July 1 here.
About PetHub, Inc.
PetHub, Inc., was started in 2010 to combat the issue of low RTH (“return to home”) rates for lost animals. Its mission is to help keep every family’s pets happy, safe and HOME for the rest of their lives. Combining software with a physical ID tag allows anyone to help a lost animal get home quickly, often avoiding a trip to a vet or a shelter. 96% of PetHub recovered “pack members” are home again in under 24-hours, and before ever entering a shelter. PetHub’s award-winning platform has multiple software and hardware patents pending on its ID tags and Internet services. The company’s tags are now in over 1,000 communities in the United States as their pet license or rabies tag, and more than 1 million pets are now members of PetHub.com.
About the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA)
The National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA) was formed in 1978 to provide resources, standardized training, and support for animal care and control professionals across the United States. Throughout the organization’s history, NACA has been a leader in providing guidance for its members as the role of animal shelters and animal care and control staff has evolved.
NACA recognizes that today’s animal field services officers provide a wide array of services to their communities, including saving pets in danger, protecting human health and safety, enforcing laws and ordinances, providing support and education to community members, disaster response, helping lost pets get home, and helping wildlife, livestock, and exotic animals, in addition to cats, dogs, and other pets. NACA offers guidance and training on many of the most crucial responsibility areas of officers, and we are a leading voice in support of the community policing approach to animal control, in order to prevent the root causes that lead to cruelty, neglect, and public safety issues.
NACA understands the unique role that animal care and control professionals play in each community and is dedicated to ensuring its members have the resources, tools, and training necessary to perform this role safely and effectively.
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