Pet owners are strongly encouraged to act promptly when their furry friend goes missing.
The Sandton SPCA shared the following practical guidelines to assist residents in the case of a missing pet:
1. Contact the vets in your area with a full description of your pet.
This includes where the pet went missing, gender, age, breed, colouring, and whether or not he/she is sterilised and micro-chipped. A photo would also be extremely helpful.
2. Contact all of the SPCA branches in your greater area.
Someone may have picked up your pet and taken them to the SPCA outside of your suburb. Provide the SPCA with the relevant information as mentioned above.
Please note that each branch has a different reporting system and it is, therefore, important to call them to find out what the protocol is.
3. Physically go and check as many SPCA branches as possible.
Don’t rely only on the SPCA staff to keep an eye out for your pet as they may get large amounts of animals that are regularly admitted to the kennels and your pet may inadvertently go unnoticed.
4. Make posters with a recent picture of your pet.
These are good to put up in and around your residential area as well as social media community groups.
It is important to note that the national SPCA policy dictates that branches, unfortunately, cannot share your lost pet posts on its social media platforms.
“We cannot stress enough the importance of microchipping your pet and ensuring that it has easily identifiable and updated details on a tag,” said the Sandton SPCA on social media.
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