The infographic below, How to Prevent Losing Your Pet, contains valuable information for every dog or cat owner. It’s something every member of the family should read, as well as anyone else involved with or responsible for caring for the family pet.
As the infographic points out, losing a pet is a traumatic experience. Hopefully the anxiety lasts only a short time, but the sad truth is, many lost pets are never united with their owners. The ASPCA reports some startling and sobering statistics: Of the approximately 6.5 million pets entering U.S. animal shelters every year, only about 710,000 are reunited with their owners — 620,000 dogs and 90,000 cats.
Cat lovers should take special note of those statistics. Fewer cats than dogs are tagged or microchipped, which may explain the disparity. Making matters worse, it’s likely that fewer lost cats end up in shelters than dogs, since when cats are wandering outdoors, people are less likely to assume they are lost and report them to the authorities. And if that were not enough, many communities lack the resources to pick up stray cats even if they are reported lost.
The 12 tips presented in the infographic will greatly reduce the chances of your dog or cat getting lost, and also greatly improve the chances of your pet being returned if it does get lost.
Some of the tips are very basic principles of pet ownership, but perhaps because they are so basic, pet owners overlook them. Keeping your dog on a leash is a good example. Leashes have been around as long as dogs have been around, and every dog owner knows a dog should be on a leash when being taken for a walk or to somewhere away from home. But it’s easy to think, Just this one time without a leash will be ok, or, My dog is trained so well no leash is needed. Well, it only takes one time for dog to bolt after a squirrel and POOF — there goes your dog, maybe forever. It’s not enough to know the basics, you have to do the basics every time. This, incidentally, is why we like the infographic format — you can easily put a copy of it on the refrigerator or elsewhere in your home as a constant reminder.
New technologies give pet owners better ways to keep their pets secure. For neighborhoods with restrictions on physical fences, invisible fences have been a pet security godsend. Beyond that, microchipping makes it possible for pets to be identified even if physical tags are lost, and GPS collars enable pet owners to track their dog or cat’s location from their mobile phones or computers 24/7/365. These tools provide wonderful peace of mind and hefty additional layers of security. You should not, however, let these technological tools give you a false sense of security: Other tips mentioned in the infographic reduce the likelihood you’ll ever have to rely on that microchip or GPS collar.
For more information to keep your pet safe, please continue reading below.
