Pawtag: A Pet Tag that Brings Your Pet Home

By isak, June 8, 2009

Working with rescues, you inevitably interact with people that have found a pet or someone who has lost a pet. And the biggest obstacle seems to be “What do I do next?”

Many turn to the internet to post a message, but WHERE? Sure PetFinder is an obvious choice, but what if the person who lost their pet has never heard of PetFinder… or they do not have a computer and an internet connection? What if the owner is checking a local “lost/found” board online or different vet clinics than you? It’s so easy for owners and rescuers to just miss each other. And signs… where do you hang signs?

Coming home late one dark night, I found an old, sem-blind, deaf, dark-colored dog standing on a narrow wooden bridge. Wow, an easy-to-miss dog in the wrong place. So I scooped him up and brought him home. The next day, I hung signs starting at the bridge and working outward in several directions. A woman jogging saw my signs and was reminded of signs she had seen earlier in another neighborhood for a similar dog. So she saved my phone number and once she returned to the other neighborhood, called the number on the LOST sign and gave the woman my number.

Long story short, the dog had disappeared seven days earlier from his yard and apparently gotten lost in the woods. It had rained pretty hard while he was lost, so there was no scent for him to follow home… and he just wandered until he came out of the woods by the bridge.

This is an example where the owner and the rescuer did the right thing, but without the jogger, we could have just missed each other.

So what if you could put a tag on your pet’s collar that would provide the rescuer with access to info 24/7 and would get your pet back home?

Pawtags has come up with just that by developing a tag that comes with:

1. Pawtags Membership allows you to register detailed information that will assist in the event your pet is lost. Our process provides for listing up to ten emergency contact phone numbers, microchip, rabies vaccination, city licensing, medical notes and veterinarian detail.

Finder of your lost pet calls our toll free 24/7 Live Operator Rescue line and provides the Pawtag ID number.

2. Your pets profile and all contact information is used by our operator to start the rescue process. Our technology provides for Google mapping of finders location to better assist in coordinating the rescue. All personal information is kept confidential.
3. Our 24/7 Operators call your posted contacts, leaving messages until a live connection is made with someone who can retrieve your pet. Then a three-way conference call is made between your pet’s Finder, our Operator and your Contact to complete the retrieval process.
4. In the event no live contact is made, messages are left and the Operator coordinates plans with the Finder to either hold the pet or deliver it to a safe location. Our extensive nationwide animal control facility database searches out safe locations or your posted Veterinarian office listing as location options. Our main emphasis and commitment is to get your pet off the street to safety!

The price is fair, too: $9.99 for a one-year membership or $29.98 for a lifetime membership. You can also buy the one-year membership now and upgrade to a lifetime membership later for $19.99.

[slider title=”Want to know what happens when someone finds your pet?”]Per Pawtags:
To protect privacy, our Operators get from finder the pets condition, their location for immediate Google mapping (could live around the corner) — and find out how long they can hold onto pet — and return phone number. Operator starts calling the Members’ contact numbers (up to 10 can be listed) — until they get someone who can pick up the pet at the finder’s location (assist in mapping if needed).

As a last resort, if no owner contacts are made (messages are left) — then Operator finds out from finder how long they can hold onto pet and follows-up. If finder can’t hold pet, our Operator searches nationwide Animal Control list to tell them where to drop off the animal and follows through with AC and the owner to retrieval. Our operators go through a 45-page training manual.

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Visit the Pawtags website for more info.