Ring and Petco Love Lost Announce Integration Ahead of Busy July 4th Weekend to Simplify Reuniting Lost Pets

New Neighbors App Feature Enables Customers to Match Missing Pet Images with Lost Pets in Shelters

HAWTHORNE, Calif., June 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ring, whose mission is to make neighborhoods safer, announced today a new integration in its Neighbors app with Petco Love Lost, Petco Love's free national database of over 170,000 reported lost and found pets, including pets from over 2,500 animal shelters. The app's new feature uses patented image-recognition technology to locate a missing pet in a local shelter or in the care of a good Samaritan, helping pets make it safely home where they belong. The new feature serves as a vital resource during this upcoming July 4^th holiday weekend, as more pets go missing during this time of year than any other and animal shelters are inundated with lost pets.

According to Petco Love, 1 in every 3 pets goes missing once in their lifetime, with estimates of 10 million annually, and more than 75% of pet parents found it difficult to find their lost pet. Last year, Ring announced its Pet Profiles as a first step in simplifying the pet retrieval process. The new integration allows customers to share images of their pet via a Neighbors Pet Profile or lost pet post with Petco Love Lost. From there, the database's pet image technology will check all affiliated shelters and private found-pet reports to see if there are any pets matching the images provided through Neighbors.

"Along with the devastation and stress of losing a beloved pet, we understand how defeating it can feel when the unthinkable happens," said Will Goldapp, Head of Neighbors by Ring. "By having the ability to immediately search all surrounding animal shelters with the push of a button, our goal is to be a lifeline for customers in getting their furry family member home. We are helping take away some of the layers of the search process and hopefully reduce the time in reuniting lost pets within communities."

In some cases, there can be up to 10 different animal shelters within a five-mile radius from a pet owner while searching Petco Love's website. Instead of filing lost or found pet reports at each shelter or having to post to several different websites, the Neighbors and Petco Love Lost integration provides an easy way to spread information widely about a lost pet on the customer's behalf.

How It Works

1. When a Neighbors customer creates a lost pet post, they can opt-in to share images of their pet attached to the post with Petco Love Lost.
2. Once submitted, Petco Love Lost will use its pet image-recognition technology to analyze the images and check all shelters they partner with within a 50-mile radius from the customer's location, as well as all privately-reported found pets on Petco Love Lost.
3. If there are one or more matches detected by Petco Love Lost, the customer will receive a link to a page showing all possible matches.
4. If the customer does not find a matching pet immediately, they can quickly create a lost pet listing on Petco Love Lost to continue searching for their lost pet.
5. Customers may also visit the Community Resources tile in the Neighbors app, which provides additional information and resources for locating lost pets, including steps to take.

"It's time for a new system utilizing technological advances to create a central lost and found pet database to reunite lost pets. No more posting of flyers around town, driving to multiple animal shelters and scrolling daily through social media lost pet posts," said Susanne Kogut, Petco Love President. "In fact, according to a survey conducted by Petco Love, only 22% of people who lost a pet indicated that they searched their local animal shelters. With this integration, we will bring visibility of shelter pets and other pets reported lost and found directly to the vast Neighbors app community. Together, we will simplify the process to reunite lost pets and keep pets with their families for a lifetime of love."

Neighbors customers have created nearly a quarter million Pet Profiles in the Neighbors app, and there have been over 200,000 resolved lost pet posts.

About Ring

Since its founding in 2013, Ring has been on a mission to make neighborhoods safer, for everyone. From the Video Doorbell, to the award-winning DIY Ring Alarm system, Ring's smart home security product line, as well as the Neighbors app, offer customers affordable whole-home and neighborhood security. At Ring, we are committed to making security accessible and convenient for everyone—while working hard to bring communities together. Ring is an Amazon company. For more information, visit www.ring.com. With Ring, you're always home.

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 $350 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We've helped find loving homes for more than 6.7 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. Is love calling you? 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 
Ring PR
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Petco Love PR
Crystal Bugary
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SOURCE Petco Love