Michigan Partnership’s Lost & Found Pet Map Online Resource

In August The Michigan Partnership for Animal Welfare launched a new resource called Lost and Found Pet Map on their website, http://www.mpaw.org, to help people around the state find the animal shelters in their area that hold pets for state-mandated stray holding periods. The goal of this new online tool is to help lost pets reunite with their owners faster, as well as showing the proper stray-holding facility to concerned citizens who find stray animals.
“Losing a pet is a frightening experience,” said Linda Reider, Director of Statewide Initiatives for the Michigan Humane Society. “People who lose a pet often do not know where to begin looking. And holding on to a lost pet instead of reporting or taking the animal to the correct shelter can significantly delay or even prevent people from finding lost pets. Our new online map makes it easy to locate the closest shelters that house lost pets, so that owners know where to look and finders know where to take a stray.”
Reider recommends that people who have lost pets check area shelters in person daily, or at least every 2-3 days as soon as they notice their pet is missing. State law sets stray animal holding times to be a minimum of four days for pets without signs of ownership (collar/tag, microchip, tattoo) or seven days for pets with these items. A pet’s tag and/or microchip is his or her “ticket back home” when lost, and should be provided for all dogs, cats, and other pets. Indoor-only pets are the ones most frequently found without identification and therefore risk never being reunited with their owners.
State law mandates that people who find lost pets report them immediately to the registered holding facility in their area. Most counties have a single animal shelter that holds strays. But in densely populated counties, cities and townships may have their own animal shelters. Some municipalities even have contracts with out-of-area shelters to hold stray animals. MPAW’s Lost and Found Pet Map helps sort out the confusion for the pet-owning and pet-finding public.
In addition to the Lost and Found Pet Map, the MPAW website offers information for individuals who work or volunteer in the field, or who are interested in the welfare of animals across Michigan. The website features weekly blogs, job postings, statewide animal legislation updates, events and training opportunities.