Lost pet statistics are rising up each and every single year. With this, a group of pet owners conducted a study regarding their lost pets. It’s the first time a study like this was made.
To complete the study, the researchers collected data on how many times pets get lost from their homes, the percentage of pets that were recovered, and probably the most important data there is: the methods owners used in finding their lost dogs or cats. The result was a revelation.
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Lost Pet Statistics: The Study
The “cross-sectional national random digit dial telephone interview” method was used for the study. There were 1,015 household participants, and all of them had a pet dog or cat within the past five years. According to the participants, about 14% of dogs and 15% cats strayed at least once during the past five years. And of those number of lost pets, 93% of dogs and 75% of cats were recovered. That means 7% of dogs and 25% of cats were never found.
According to lost pet statistics released by the ASPCA, there are 86.4 million cats and 78.2 million dogs owned in the United States. Based on the above stats, the number of lost owned pets that end up in shelters every year are 5 to 7 million!
So how did those pet dogs and cat return home? Here are the numbers gathered by the study:
- 49% of dogs and 30% of cats were found within the neighborhood.
- 59% of them returned home on their own, which means 41% of them was found because owners looked for them.
- 15% of dogs were returned thanks to ID tags or microchips.
- Around 2/3 of lost cats didn’t wear any tags.
The Role of Shelters
Unfortunately, out of the 110 dogs and 74 cats that had been reported missing in the lost pet statistics survey, only 7 dogs and 2 cats were found in animal shelters. The low stats of recovered cats (18 of 74) was revealed to be that low because only four owners were searching for their pets in the shelter.
It only shows that most of the cat owners that weren’t able to recover their pets actually didn’t look into the nearby animal shelters in their area. Because of the high rate (25%) of lost cats that were not recovered, other ways to reunite owners and pets are sought.
The Use of Tracking Technology
One of the most effective ways to find your lost pet or avoid losing them is tracking them with the use of GPS tracking device Trackimo. With Trackimo technology, pet owners will be able to monitor their pet dogs and cats in real time. They just have to trace a fenced-zone in the map and they will receive an alert on their iPhone and Androids from Trackimo if their pets will go out of the set borders.
So for the pet owners, it is recommended that you also search the animal shelters in your area, put tags on them, or, better yet, attach a GPS device on them. If all owners follow these tips, the above-mentioned lost pet statistics will shrink.
Differences of GPS Pet Trackers and Microchips
But you might ask, “My pet is already microchipped? Do I still need to get a GPS pet tracker for him?”
The short and concise answer is “Yes.”
While microchipping is a technology that does have its advantages, it is not enough to ensure the safety and security of our pets. You also need a tracker to be able to quickly locate the whereabouts of your pet if ever you do lose sight of them or they get away from you. Let’s delve into the specific benefits of microchips and GPS pet trackers and the differences between them.
What Are Microchips?
To put it briefly, microchips are a permanent way of identification for your pet. In the older, less technologically-equipped days, collars and tags were used to identify domestic pets like dogs and cats. Thanks to technology, there are more accurate and convenient ways of identifying pets. One of those is microchipping. So what are “microchips”? They’re basically chips that have information digitally embedded into it, details such as the pet’s name, its owner’s name, and contact information such as phone numbers or email addresses. If the pet wanders away from you or your home and loses his way, the person who finds him can take him to a veterinarian or animal shelter where the staff can have him scanned for microchips. Once they find one and they access the information embedded in it, they can then contact you, the owner, so you can finally be reunited with your beloved pet. Microchips are implanted under the surface of the pet’s skin, usually in the neck or shoulder areas.
Benefits of Microchips
As a pet owner, you might be having some doubts about the safety of having microchips implanted into your pet, but animal experts actually confirm that they’re very safe and effective. The following are some of the benefits that you will get from microchipping your pets:
1. Unlike traditional collars or tags that can easily be removed, microchips are more secure and reliable forms of pet identification.
2. They’re very easy to implant and set up. The chip itself is first digitally embedded with the necessary information and then it is implanted into your pet’s skin, just underneath the surface, in what is essentially a pain-free process for your pet.
3. There is no way of possibly tampering with the information on the chip, and thus it provides an indisputable proof of ownership. In short, no one else can claim ownership of your pet other than you.
4. You only need to go through the implantation process once and it’s good for your pet’s entire life. You just need to update the information on the database once in a while.
5. It increases your chances of having your pet returned to you should he ever get lost.
What Are GPS Pet Trackers?
Pet trackers are devices that are equipped with the capability to monitor the exact GPS location of your pet. If you have a tracker installed on your pet, this will make it easier on you to track his whereabouts even if you lose sight of them or if they wander away from your property. A pet tracker is different from a microchip in that while the latter is mainly used for identifying pets, it won’t be helpful at all in trying to track their location. Losing a pet is an urgent situation, and a GPS pet tracker helps you address that urgency by helping you instantly discover the exact location of your lost pet via GPS.
Benefits of GPS Pet Trackers
1. The foremost advantage that such devices can give you, a pet owner, is the ability to immediately locate your pet in the event that he wanders away from you or gets lost. According to lost pet statistics, your chances of recovering a pet greatly decrease after the first 24 hours. This means that it is extremely crucial for you to find and recover your pet immediately as the longer it takes you to find him, the greater the possibility of him falling into some kind of harm or suffering an injury.
2. You can save on search costs. It is to be expected that you will exhaust all means to find and incur all costs to find your beloved pet. But the longer your search time, the more money you will have to spend on printing fliers, hiring third party searchers to look for your pet, and even in offering rewards to people who have information about the whereabouts of your pet. A tracking device not only cuts short your search time but it also helps you save on those particular search costs. With a quality tracker like Trackimo, all you need to do is to access the database via its app or website and you will instantly find out where your pet is so you can be reunited with him. No costs, minimal effort!
3. Location is not the only thing that a tracker can trace; it can also monitor your pet’s vital stats and physical activity. This way, even if you’re apart from your pet, you can determine the kind of physical condition he’s in. Trackimo also has an audio monitoring feature that will allow you to listen in to his immediate environment. All these features will enable you to be one step ahead of him and pinpoint whether he’s in any form of potential danger.
4. Pets don’t stay in one place all the time; they constantly move around all the time. This is partly what makes lost pets so hard to find. A tracking device like Trackimo makes sure you are informed of his whereabouts in real time. This means that even with a pet that’s constantly moving, you’ll still be able to tracking where he is.
Losing a pet is a difficult situation to encounter, but if you’re aware of the statistics and are fully prepared for the possibility by investing in microchips and GPS pet trackers, then you’ll be able to face the situation head on.
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