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Foil Those Pet Snatchers
By Millie Ashworth
One of the worst things that can come of a missing pet is the suspicion that a professional pet snatcher abducted it; there are profitable markets for your pets. Once in the hands of a pet snatcher, a pet could quickly disappear into a maze of negative environments.
There's no set pattern to pet snatchers' activities. They employ all kinds of techniques to capture animals, among them: using tranquilizing guns and drugs or enticing a male dog into a van by using a female in heat.
There are areas and situations that cause pets to be more vulnerable to abduction, such as heavily populated neighborhoods or pets left alone each day because of work schedules. More dogs are stolen than cats, and purebreds are the most frequent. The larger breeds, such as German Shepherds, Dobermans, Retrievers, Setters, Collies, Huskies and Malamutes top the list.
What you can do to protect your pet:
The basic rules are: never let your pet run loose. If the pet is outdoors, keep it confined behind a fence; better still, install a high security fence with a heavy-duty lock. Have your pet collared with a tag, or tattooed or identified with an imbedded microchip. Always lock your house when your pet is left alone inside. Never leave it alone in a car. Having a pet spayed or neutered will discourage its escape from security. Watchdog your neighborhood for suspicious individuals; if seen, report them to the police. Ask to see the credentials of animal control personnel. Never leave your pet unattended at cat or dog shows. And never give out your pet's name or discuss its value with strangers.
What you can do if your pet is lost or stolen:
Start trying to track it down immediately; time is an important factor. A large dog, if a run-a-way, can travel more than 20 miles a day. If your pet isn't found early, don't give up; pets have come home weeks or months later
Check any possible haunt or escape outlet for your pet–they might offer clues. Post "lost" signs throughout your area with description, identification and a photo if you have one. And be sure to run ads in the lost and found sections of local papers. Ask the postman, newspaper carrier, anyone who circuits your neighborhood regularly, as well as neighbors, to watch for your pet. When you start searching the neighborhood, keep someone at home in case the pet wanders in or a pet snatcher calls for ransom. Keep a cell phone with you, make calls to distant neighbors and search a large perimeter of the neighborhood.
Identification is important. Tags are better than nothing, but tags can be lost. A permanent form of ID, such as a tattoo or imbedded microchip is better. With them, the first place to call is the pet's registry (see sidebar). Contact veterinarians in case your pet has been injured and brought to a clinic. However, if the pet is properly identified, the vet may call you.
There are many animal shelters, welfare agencies and sanctuaries in the yellow pages; alert as many as you can, giving them a complete description. Most of the city shelters only keep animals three to ten days before destroying them, so it's important to visit them as soon as possible. And revisit them every two or three days.
It wouldn't hurt to contact the police to inquire if there are any known pet theft rings located in your area. Scout pet shops to see if your pet has been sold to one of them. Unfortunately, another market outlet for pet snatchers is medical research laboratories.
As an animal lover, I deplore this. Given the possible justification, that some animal experimentation is necessary to further medical progress toward human survival, I'm still troubled by the fact, a human can choose to volunteer; an animal doesn't have a choice. I'll never concede that repetitive experimentation on the same animal is remotely necessary, certainly, far from humane. Nor should it be necessary to test animals in areas that have little or no relationship to human survival. There are laws against abuse in animal research laboratories, but how well are they enforced?
If there are such laboratories in your area, be sure to check them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture may be able to help. Give them all the information concerning your pet, and ask them to distribute it to the agents who monitor licensed commercial breeding kennels and pet dealers who sell to research laboratories. They can also supply you with a list of those dealers and laboratories. Contact the APHIS Animal Care regional office at: USDA-APHIS-REAC, 501 Felix FWFC Bldg #11, P O Box 6258, Ft. Worth TX 76115. Provide those dealers and research facilities with pictures and information about your lost pet.
Tattoos, Imbedded Microchips and National Registries
Tattooing just inside the ear is considered best for cats and can be done at six months of age. It takes just two to three minutes and is considered painless. For further information, phone, (800) Tattoos or visit www.tattoo-a-pet.com. The microchip is a rice-sized device encoded with an unalterable identification number and implanted just under the skin in the scruff of the neck.
The American Kennel Club has a 24 hour-a-day nationwide pet identification and recovery service called Companion Animal Recovery (CAR). It has a central database of identification numbers for owners who are using any permanent form of identification. CAR has the largest database in the U.S. for microchipped pets.
More than 15,000 scanners that detect imbedded microchipped numbers have been placed with veterinarians and animal shelters nationwide. You can, for a reasonable enrollment fee, participate in the network by having your pet microchipped or tattooed, then obtain a CAR enrollment form from a participating vet, fill it out and mail to CAR. If a lost pet's permanent ID is reported to CAR, it will make every effort to reach the owner. To report a lost or found animal with permanent ID, call CAR by phone, (800) 25-7894; Fax, (919) 233-1290 or E-mail, found@akc.org.
The country's oldest dog registry is the National Dog Registry (NDR), specializing in tattoo identifications. Its registry covers the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, 24 hours a day. Phone: (800) NDR-DOGS (800-637-3647) or Email: info@natldogregistry.com. Permanent animal identification in no way disqualifies purebreds from the show ring. On the contrary, it is encouraged by the AKC.
Lost and Found Lists on the Web
There are several lost and found pet sites on the Internet, but this method of searching for a missing pet is not all that successful yet. One problem is the lack of a central clearinghouse or shared database on missing pet listings. Animal Care, a branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the USDA, is trying build such a database with the Missing Pet Network.
Even with it's limited success, the Internet is another search tactic to use in trying to locate your missing pet. But most pet-finding experts advise using the Web as an extension to traditional search methods, not as a replacement.
Some sites we found are:
Missing Pet Network:
www.missingpet.net
Lost and Found Pets:
Flealess Market's Lost Pets:
www.flealess.org
The PetWork:
www.petwork.com
Millie Ashworth, a lifelong animal lover, was the founder and publisher of OK PetGazette. Sadly, she passed away in the fall of 2000 from ovarian cancer. If we can educate at least one person on how to love and care for their pet, her legacy will live on.
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