ArcaMax.com - When man's best friend needs a hand
ArcaMax Publishing, Inc.
From the ArcaMax Publishing, Cats & Dogs Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/cgi-bin/news/story/1006/1030/34659/596696
When man's best friend needs a hand
Joao-Pierre S. Ruth
It can be difficult to return a lost pet to its brokenhearted human family when the family has a fixed address. It's much harder when there are thousands
of missing pets and their owners are in temporary shelters scattered over several states.
One New Jersey business is a central part of the effort to help the human survivors find their pets from among the thousands that have been plucked out
of the disaster zones and housed at animal shelters in outlying towns.
Rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have focused on saving human lives imperiled by the powerful storm; many survivors were forced
to abandon their pets in order to let rescue workers do their jobs. Conditions were dangerous, and as people were evacuated by helicopter or boat, space
and supplies were limited. That means pets waited for rescue until after their owners had made it to safety, often ending up in facilities a great distance
from their homes.
Petfinder.com in Pittstown launched the Animal Emergency Response Network in mid-September to reunite these animals and their owners. The company's main
business is running an online database of adoptable animals; it usually showcases cuddly critters looking for new homes. Now the company has lent its resources
to helping displaced pets reconnect with their equally displaced owners.
The Animal Emergency Response Network is an online database that allows pet owners to post information about their pets, such as the animals' last known
whereabouts, and search the database for a possible match with their missing animal. Anybody can access the site over the Web at http://disaster.petfinder.org/
emergency. There, shelter workers can post photos and information about the rescued animals in their care and where to pick them up. Foster owners willing
to take in a pet temporarily can likewise sign on and declare their availability. There is also a link for rescue workers to look up requests to save animals
whose owners fear they may still be in danger.
Owners are not likely to find recovered pets on their own as they move through the shelter system. "Once an animal is taken out of New Orleans or the surrounding
parishes, it needs to be decontaminated, given a medicated bath, checked by a veterinarian, vaccinated and treated for any illnesses," says Julie Morris,
senior vice president of national outreach for the ASPCA in New York City. "Because there is not housing to keep these animals in New Orleans, they transport
these animals out to other shelters across the United States." Louisiana and Mississippi mandated that the animals were to be kept in the shelters at least
until the end of September, then placed in foster care until October 15 to give owners a chance to claim them.
The task is more complicated than simply matching the name on a dog's collar to a photo. "We have information like breed, age and identifiable markings,"
says Betsy Saul, 37, president of Petfinder.com.
Every bit of extra information can help, because at first look, one muddy, miserable animal looks much like any other. "It's tough," says Saul. "We don't
want people to just say their missing pet is a Bichon Frise. Rescuers might not recognize this wet fluff of a dog as a fancy Bichon Frise."
The sheer volume of animals rescued from flood areas makes the process even harder. "We have 2,000 records of lost pets," says Saul-and that number is climbing
by 300 to 400 daily.
So far, some 5,000 to 10,000 animals have .been rescued and placed in shelters. The vast numbers of animals has created a backlog in getting their information
online. "It takes so long to process a pet, there is a bottleneck," Saul says. "There were so many that appeared online that first day, there has been
a catch-up period."
A host of benevolent pet and animal-related groups are participating in the network. The American Humane Association, the American Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, Pets911.com and others are coordinating their resources through the Website. The intent
is to reach out as widely as possible to people who had to leave their pets behind.
Helping match needy animals with people is no stretch for Petfinder.com. The company was founded in 1995 by Saul and her husband, Jared, 36, in their two-bedroom
Somerset apartment. With no experience in running a virtual business, Saul forged ahead with an idea to help animals in nonprofit shelters find new homes.
Her hope was to reduce the need to euthanize unwanted animals.
"We are just for adoptable pets," says Saul. "Once a shelter joins they can start posting their pets into the system immediately. It is a happy accident
that what we do saves lives."
Before she started Petfinder.com, Saul was "doing urban tree planning for the New Jersey Forestry Service. We didn't have any business doing what we are
doing with Petfinder.com."
Celebrating its 10th year, Petfinder.com expects to see the 10 millionth adoption this year as a result of its services. The company facilitates about 1.5
million adoptions annually. Saul says Petfinder.com's services may have helped bring the national animal euthanasia rate down from 16 million annually
to an estimated 4 million to 5 million this year. "That's a huge drop in 10 years," she says with pride.
More than 9,000 shelters in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Virginia Islands post their adoptable animals with the service. "There are about
200,000 animals in the system right now," says Saul.
Petfinder.com has 20 employees, generates revenue of between $2 million to $5 million and is profitable. The privately held company makes its money through
online advertising sales from pet-product companies like Purina and Petco. The service is free and available to shelters and to potential pet adopters.
Saul says the work of helping Katrina survivors to reclaim the lost pets is far from over. "We need the unglamorous things. It is difficult to keep volunteers
in the temporary animal shelters," she says. "It is really hot and muggy and they are sleeping there."
She anticipates there may be pets in shelters for three months, since their families may still be in shelters themselves. But the demands of the crisis
mean that many pets for which there are willing owners-somewhere-could face euthanasia if they are not reunited soon. "The shelter system is not equipped
to handled 10,000 extra animals," Saul says.
This news arrived on: 10/27/2005
Copyright © 2005 ArcaMax Publishing, Inc., and its licensors. All rights reserved.
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