Animal Care & Control Announces Program Focused on Returning Lost Pets
Animal Care & Control has added mobile computers, retired from the police department, to Animal Control vans, which will provide animal control officers direct access to pet owner information. When a lost pet is found with current, traceable identification the officer will now be able to take the lost pet directly home.
According to Director Belinda Lewis, “The program will enhance the direct return of pets to their homes, save citizens time coming into the shelter and increase life saving opportunities for pets already in our building.”
Chief Rusty York along with the police department’s mobile support staff worked with the shelter to make the retired police mobile computers available, at a tremendous cost savings. The Controllers Office and Chief Technology Officer for the City assisted with the ancillary requirements of the project.
Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy congratulated each of the city departments for coming together to provide an additional service to the community without increasing costs to citizens.
Lewis stressed that the key to the overall success of the program will be motivating citizens to keep identification tags and microchip information current and registered with the shelter. If identification isn’t traceable, we can’t send them home again.
"This program saves the City money while enhancing services. In our 2012 budget, Animal Care and Control did not budget for a dispatch position because these new mobile computers will allow animal control officers in the field to return to their vans to look up the information that they would have previously had to get from a dispatcher," said Deputy Mayor Malloy.