Hitchcock Road Animal Services shares ways to find lost pets ahead of July 4
SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Hitchcock Road Animal Services is sharing free ways to get lost and found pets home ahead of 4th of July weekend.
In the weeks before and after the holiday weekend, shelters usually see more pets coming in that were scared and ran away from home because of fireworks.
Two of the ways it suggested are Lost2Found and Finding Rover.
Lost2Found is a text messaging program. When a pet owner texts "831LOST" to 56525, they are helped through the process of finding their pet. The process may include links to view animals on shelter websites and video tutorials. Hitchcock Road Animal Services said the program has been successful in other cities around California.
The program can also help people who find a pet. In that case, people can text "831FOUND" to 56525 to get help reuniting the pet with the owner before it enters a shelter.
Finding Rover was launched around Monterey County last fall, and it uses facial recognition technology. Every dog or cat that goes through Hitchcock Road Animal Services is registered on Finding Rover. Those who use the technology can search the shelter and surrounding areas from their phone or computer to find a missing pet or the family of a found pet.
To register a pet on Finding Rover, go to the website here and upload a photo of the pet, a few details and your name, email address and zip code.
The shelter also reminds pet owners to make sure identification tags and microchips are updated, fences are secure and that pet sitters know what to do if a pet is lost.
