Petco Love Celebrates One Year of Doing the Reunite Thing for Pets; Issues Industry Challenge Ahead of National Lost Dog and Cat Day

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Apr 25, 2022, 08:36 ET

National lost and found pet database now reunites 1,000 lost pets every month

SAN ANTONIO, April 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pet acquisition rose to an all-time high during the pandemic with an estimated 70% of U.S. households now having a pet family member*. National nonprofit Petco Love launched new technology to ensure people and their beloved pets stay together, and are celebrating the first anniversary of its signature lost and found initiative, Petco Love Lost.

Scott and his wife occasionally let their two cats sunbathe when they were relatively supervised in the backyard. But one day, they noticed their 11-year-old cat Fallon was gone. Thanks to Petco Love Lost and the kindness of neighbors, they found lost cat Fallon nearby a week after she went missing.

Estimates suggest one in three pets goes missing in their lifetime — that's a staggering 10 million annually — and many never return home. This heartbreaking number is why Petco Love created the national database, which simplifies and shortens the lost pet search by using just one photo of a pet. Facial recognition technology enables Petco Love Lost's national database — populated by more than 1,800 shelter locations — to identify and bring home these lost pets.

Reuniting missing pets is an industry-wide challenge, one that often takes an entire community to aid in the search effort. It's Petco Love's mission to unite pet parents, animal welfare organizations, veterinary clinics, and other industry partners to make reuniting with a lost pet a simpler process.

Last week at one of the animal welfare industry's largest conferences, national nonprofit leader Petco Love issued an industry challenge for animal shelters to reunite more than 50% of stray animal intake by 2024. Current estimates suggest fewer than 32%** of lost pets who enter shelters make it back home nationally.

"It's tragic for both the animal and its family when a pet goes missing," said Petco Love president Susanne Kogut. "And Petco Love understands that when the unthinkable happens, families need help — quickly." She adds, "Across the animal welfare sheltering industry in the past 10 years, there has been little improvement in the number of lost pets in shelters reunited with their families, and that is unacceptable. We can simplify the search by working together on a single platform that connects shelters, pet parents, and neighbors. Pets, like Fallon, are family and deserve our best efforts to bring them back home. We believe that together, we can do better."

Over the last year, the searchable database has grown to include more than 1,800 shelters and rescues in cities, and rural areas across the U.S. using facial recognition technology to help reunite lost pets with their families.

Petco Love Lost celebrates this achievement together with its partners. Other milestones include:

Reuniting more than 1,000 pets a month
Searchable database has reached more than 100,000 found pets from shelter partners and users
Growth of industry support and collaboration from partners such as Tractive, 24PetWatch, HABRI and more
Improved user experience
Additional educational content on steps to take if your pet is lost
Seamless sharing of lost pet posters across social platforms and email
96% of users recommend Petco Love Lost

Visit petcolovelost.org or join the conversation @PetcoLoveLost on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via hashtags #PetcoLoveLost and #LoveAndFound. Corporations, animal welfare organizations and pet industry participants seeking to join us in Doing the Reunite Thing to help drive awareness of this important solution can contact [email protected].

*According to American Pet Products Association National Pet Owners Survey 2021-2022
**According to 24PetWatch Stray Shelter Intake/Outcomes Data

About Petco Love

Petco Love is a life-changing nonprofit organization that makes communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since our founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, we've empowered animal welfare organizations by investing $330 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We've helped find loving homes for more than 6.5 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide.

Our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us. Join us. Visit petcolove.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to be part of the lifesaving work we lead every day.

Media Contact:
Lisa Lane Cardin, Petco Love, [email protected]

SOURCE Petco Love