Losing a dog or cat can turn an ordinary day into a frantic neighbourhood search involving cars, flashlights, Facebook posts and repeated calls of “Here, Charlie, CHARLIEEEEE?”
Rideau Lakes Township is hoping to make those reunions a lot less stressful.
The municipality has partnered with DocuPet, a pet registration and lost-pet recovery service, following council’s decision to move away from municipal dog and cat licensing. Officials are stressing one important point: this is not a replacement pet licence. It’s a free voluntary registry designed to help lost animals find their way home.
When council reviewed its animals-at-large bylaw, it was given three options: continue selling traditional municipal tags and tracking them through a spreadsheet, move licensing to DocuPet or eliminate licensing altogether. Council chose the third option.
That opened the door to a different kind of partnership.
“With DocuPet, pet owners can visit our website and register their pets. Registration provides many free benefits including an online pet profile, a pet tag (shipped for free) with a QR code linked to the pet’s profile, and 24/7 lost pet help,” explained Mellissa Kroger, communications specialist with DocuPet.
“It allows you to create your own profile, provide whatever information you so choose from pictures to colouring, everything else,” explained Deputy Fire Chief Shane Peters.
The service is free to both the municipality and pet owners. Owners can purchase upgraded or designer tags, but there is no charge to register a pet and receive the standard tag.
More importantly for the township, the partnership gives municipal staff access to the registry, providing another tool when a wandering dog or cat turns up.
And the tag is only part of the digital detective work.
According to Peters, the system can use a pet’s photograph, description and the location where it was found to search for possible matches. Owners can report a pet missing, triggering a notification to bylaw enforcement, while residents who join the lost-pet network can receive alerts about animals missing nearby.
That could make a big difference when Fluffy slips through a screen door or Charlie decides the grass really is greener three concessions over.
DocuPet’s HomeSafe service operates around the clock. Anyone finding a registered pet can enter the tag number online or contact the recovery service directly, potentially getting the animal home before a trip to the pound is necessary.
Microchips are still useful, Peters said, but are not foolproof. Owners often don’t register the chip after implantation, leaving animal control officers with little more than a number and the identity of whoever installed the chip.
The DocuPet program has only just launched in Rideau Lakes, so there are no local uptake figures yet.
Ultimately, Peters said, the goal is to skip the pound whenever possible and get wandering pets back through their own front doors.
“It’s our attempt to try and reunite pet owners with their pets in the event that they’re lost and they end up in the hands of the municipality,” he said, noting that avoiding impoundment also avoids fees, costs and stress.
“This is a way for us as the municipality, with no cost to anyone, no cost to a taxpayer, no cost to a resident, to try and reunite their pets.”
In other words, Rideau Lakes may no longer be issuing dog licences, but it is giving local pets a decidedly 21st-century breadcrumb trail home.
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