Beyond Rescue Foundation

When a dog is lost, many average pet owners do not know where to begin. Currently, lost and found dogs are posted among a multitude of possible social media pages and local groups. However, awareness of and access to these avenues is inconsistent and leads to delays in reunification. This disproportionately affects the elderly, lower classes, and those without social media or internet access. A centralized lost and found registry can reduce dogs in shelters by creating one place for the public to be aware of, one place for finders/shelters/rescues to post and update, streamlining communication, and expediating reunification.

Especially given the lack of a centralized lost and found registry, by the time a dog owner navigates lost and found pages and locates their lost dog in a shelter or rescue, the short stray hold period may have elapsed. Some shelters and rescues will withhold a found dog from reunification if neglect or abuse is "suspected", however this is often more likely due to personal bias versus a valid welfare concern leading to owners being unable to regain possession of their pet due to racism, classism, or simply dislike. A mandatory return of a located pet after the stray hold period upon proof of ownership would increase reunification rates and reduce undue harm on well meaning pet owners. The short duration of stray hold periods was not created so rescues could withhold pets from owners, but rather to prevent a bottleneck of dogs. A dog becoming lost should not create a loophole for rescues to obtain ownership of a pet for reasons that should require legal seizure and due process.

We currently have NO idea how many dogs are in or have been through the rescue and sheltering system. Some dogs enter the sheltering system from their original source such as a puppy mill or backyard breeder. Other dogs enter the sheltering system as strays and others are owner surrenders that adopted the dog from a different shelter or rescue. Such a registry will help a shelter or rescue that comes into possession of a dog that has been in the system previously to learn of origin and back history, previous medical/health concerns, and increase reunification for unregistered microchips. A rescue and shelter registry would begin to provide actual data on the population of dogs in the sheltering system so we can better understand root sources and inefficiencies so that more innovative solutions can be realized.

Further, with rescues refusing to take accountability for the dogs they adopt out into the world becoming more and more common, such a registry would help identify rescues doing more harm than good by putting out dogs that end up back in the system elsewhere in the future. With behavior concerns in rescue dogs seemingly becoming more prevalent, a registry would provide insight into origin, past behavior, and how many times a specific dog has reentered the sheltering system.