SPCA provides valuable advice on what to do when your pet goes missing
There is a couple of things one should do first when you realise your dog is no longer at home
Domestic pets can get lost quite easily when someone leaves the gate open or they slip out unseen when you are taking the car out of the property.
The Boksburg SPCA has shared some few points you should consider when you realise your dog is longer at home.
- Phone the local SPCA or animal welfare organisation
Give all the details (breed, age, sex, sterilised or not, micro chipped or not, wearing a collar and disc or not, area where dog went missing, and the day the dog went missing as well as your name and contact number).
If any animal enters into the society that fits the description of your lost pet, then the SPCA/animal welfare organisation will contact you to go into the SPCA /animal welfare organisation to see if they have your lost pet.
Within the first seven days this will entail (at an SPCA) the owner paying an ‘impounding fee’ to get their animal back.
This fee is inclusive of a collar and ID disc (if the animal does not already have these) and is very important as the animal will then have some form of identification if they should ever escape from the premises again.
- Contact all other SPCAs and animal welfare organisations in your area
Sometimes people can pick up lost animals and take them to their own SPCA or animal welfare organisation and not to the one nearest to where the animal was found.
The more people who know of your pets details the more chance you usually have of getting him or her returned safely.
Contact all veterinarians in your area (and neighbouring areas)
Members of the public can also drop off animals that they have found at vets and they (the vets) will normally hold onto the lost animal for a couple of days before sending to the nearest SPCA/animal welfare.
- Put up posters
Include a clear picture of the lost animal all around where you live and perhaps offer a small reward for the safe return of the animal.
It is important that on these posters you include the sex and age of the animal and if they have been sterilised or not as well as the area that they were lost from.
- Search the area
This is really only worthwhile if the animal is immediately noticed missing as, once out of the premises, they can cover quite large distances in a short period of time.
However, getting in your car and searching the nearby streets for the lost animal can be instrumental in finding them and is worth trying.
- Lack of action
Boksburg SPCA manager, Maggie Mudd, said: “It always amazes the staff of the SPCA that so few owners actually come to the society to look for their lost pets – this is noticed even when a ‘pedigree’ animal enters into the SPCA as a stray and no one comes to look for it.
“It seems like owners can sometimes be too quick to assume that these animals have been stolen and think that no one would drop them off at a SPCA.
“The truth is we have a number of cross breed and pedigrees enter into the SPCA as strays and it is always worthwhile calling into the society to check if your lost pet has not been brought in as a stray.
“It is important to remember that the Boksburg SPCA pound period is only seven days and once this time has passed then the stray animal automatically moves from the pound kennels to the SPCA kennels and, at this time, legally becomes the property of the society.”
She said ‘owners’ claiming their lost pets after the seven day pound period will find themselves having to re-adopt their animals at a fee of R900 and the animal will have to be sterilised (if not already done).
“The adoption fee would also include the first vaccination, deworming, collar and ID disc as well as a microchip.”
- Social media
According to Mudd, more people are taking the easier way of advertising on social media that they have lost a pet and are putting up posts.
“Although there is nothing wrong with advertising in this manner, it is still important to call into all SPCAs or animal welfare organisations to check that your lost pet is not there.
“This is especially true of cross breeds as they can be viewed as one breed by someone and something totally different by someone else.
“It is also important to remember that not all SPCAS/animal welfare organisations use social media and, unless they actually know that a pet that they may have in their custody has been reported as lost, the chance of them contacting the owner to advise them that they may have the animal is nil,” Mudd said.
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