Please help me bring this information to the residents of your community.FACT: The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region (HSPPR) receives over 600 stray/lost animals from the Colorado “plains” (Falcon/Elbert/Yoder/Calhan/Peyton etc.) each year. Only about 150 of those strays (25 percent) are reclaimed by their owner, which is way below the average for the city of Colorado Springs. There are several reasons that the remaining 450 stray animals never go back home. One reason for the high percentage of animals never returned is that the owners of these animals are unaware that HSPPR receives so many strays from the plains. So they don’t bother to come in and look. Or, perhaps people on the plains don’t know that the humane society exists in Colorado Springs.I want to change the perceptions with this letter.I have volunteered with the lost and found program for almost 10 years. I established www.lostpaws.com (719) 522-1438) to help reunite lost animals with their owners. My heart breaks for the lost animals who pine for their owners and don’t get to go back home because no one looks for them.I want everyone to know about the large number of strays (dogs, cats and other animals) that come into HSPPR. I encourage anyone who has lost an animal to please come in and fill out a lost report so that we can help you. HSPPR has a full lost and found program and can provide helpful information (as well as Web sites: www.petharbor.com, www.lostpaws.com and www.hsppr.org) to aid people in their search. They have a wonderful flier called a “Tips Sheet on how to find your Lost Pet,” which is available at the shelter. I will send via regular mail or e-mail the tips sheet as well.We also have hundreds of owners who never find their animals in spite of coming to the shelter and filling out lost reports and searching for their pet for months on end. This may be due in large part to a major assumption made by the kind, Good Samaritans who find a stray. They sometimes assume that the animal was abandoned or dumped off in the country. By making that assumption, people tend not to report the stray animal nor do they make an effort to check if an owner is searching. If a stray isn’t reported as found, the owner will have no chance to find his or her pet.While owner abandonment of animals does account for a percentage of the strays, assuming no one is looking for a pet can be a painful mistake for desperate owners looking for their beloved pets. It doesn’t cost anything to report an animal as found and it could reap wonderful benefits with a tearful reunion of owner and pet!The other assumption made by Good Samaritans is that by calling HSPPR they must relinquish the animal and the animal will be euthanized. THIS IS INCORRECT! I get calls from people all the time who want to report the animal to me but not to the shelter because they are scared that the animal will be harmed. Please be aware that you do NOT have to turn in an animal when you report it as found. You can keep that animal in your home while we/you search for the owner. But how is the owner going to find you and the animal if you don’t report it to the major, local centralized organization (HSPPR) in the area for lost and found animals. Please call me (719-522-1438) so that I can help you.Bottom line:If you have FOUND a stray animal, you can CALL IN a FOUND REPORT to HSPPR at 473-1741, option 2. If you leave a message with your information (phone/first name/animal/location), a found report will be filled out and placed in the lost and found room for 10 days with the hope that an owner will see it and be reunited with his or her pet.Humane society officers will not come to get the animal (unless you request that they pick up the animal and you are within the boundaries of animal control served by HSPPR). You do have the option of bringing the animal to the shelter, and the staff will hold it for five days as a stray, matching the lost reports on file if you can’t hold the animal. After five days, the humane society will do a behavior/health evaluation and then put the animal up for adoption, if it passes the evaluations. Please call Lostpaws or enter a found report on www.lostpaws.com.If you have LOST an animal, please go down to HSPPR in person to file a report (also call Lostpaws at 719-522-1438 and/or log your report on www.lostpaws.com). HSPPR has many resources available to you but they do need the owner to be his/her own best advocate in searching through the incoming stray animals and the found reports. People see things differently and what an owner may call a Chow mix, the shelter or the Good Samaritan may call a German Shepherd mix. The owner, by coming in person, will be able to see all the information and all the animals and make better decisions on what to follow up on. A lost report is crucial, since we can’t help if we have no idea that an animal is missing and someone is looking for it.Please feel free to call LOSTPAWS at 719-522-1438 with any information on a lost or found animal or if you have questions. Or send me an e-mail at kdlostpaws@aol.com. I am happy to help. I love what I do and I have great success. But information from owners and Good Samaritans is key!All this being said, please do your best to keep your cats inside and your dogs confined! And at a minimum, a GOOD NAME TAG with a PHONE NUMBER is ESSENTIAL.Kris Dearden719-522-1438kdlostpaws@aol.comwww.lostpaws.comEditor’s note: The humane society will not necessarily pick up a pet.
