Caledon launches Lost and Found portal

By Rob Paul

As part of streamlining the process and making it easier for residents to be united with their lost pets, Caledon Animal Services has announced the launch of a new online Lost and Found pet portal dedicated to helping residents reconnect with their lost pets. 

Pets that are lost and abandoned each year in North America are in the thousands and shelters like Caledon Animal Services helps reconnect lost pets with their owners and implementing the online system will make that process easier and faster for all involved. Residents who have lost or found a pet can easily input information into a database by filling out a questionnaire and uploading a photo.

“Pets are part of the family, so we want to do everything we can to make sure they get home safe,” said Mayor Allan Thompson. “The new online Lost and Found Pet portal improves the process for both residents and staff.”  

The new portal was developed by Animal Services and Information Technology staff at the Town and can be reached at www.caledon.ca/en/living-here/lost-and-found-pets.aspx.

Launched last week, the new online form is accessible, mobile-friendly and secure. It will allow for improved customer service, faster processing for both residents and staff, and photo uploads of pets to help identify them faster and easier.

“This new service will be a great tool to reunite lost pets with their families,” said Brenda Dermott, Supervisor of Caledon Animal Services. “Until now, the lost and found process was paper-based. Going to an online platform will allow for quicker response times and less stress to the animals and their owners.”  

The idea for the portal came together to make the process of identifying and connecting missing pets with their families quicker and more accurate.

“The Town was previously using a manual lost and found reporting system,” Dermott said. “An online portal was always to be created and doing so now will ensure that matching up lost pets with their owners is much more efficient and accurate.”

Not only will the portal make the process of connecting pets to families faster, but it will be more straightforward for residents too.

“The online portal will make the process much easier,” said Dermott. “Residents can easily submit an inquiry for their lost pet and staff will be able to search our current reports. It's easy, time-efficient, and accurate. Residents can easily file a lost or found report with the shelter and can be done any time (even after hours when staff are not available).”

Dermott says Caledon Animal Services deals with hundreds of lost pets each year and residents struggle with lost pets every day.

“Staff speak with owners of lost pets daily,” she said. “We generally have 300 to 400 lost pets come into our care every year.” 

The process of reuniting pets with their families can be made difficult if the pets don't have ID, but the hope for Caledon Animal Services is that the new online portal will refine the whole procedure.   

“We have cases about lost and found pets daily. Reuniting a lost pet with its family is successful when the pet has valid ID (micro-chip or personal ID tag); we can contact the family right away. Sometimes, the animal doesn't even need to come into the shelter if there is an ID tag. Pets without ID, however, are more difficult to reunite, as we have to rely on the owner to contact us. We post cases of a lost pet on the Town's social media platforms and other lost pet websites in hopes of finding their family. It isn't always successful and unclaimed pets will become available for adoption if not reunited. The online portal will help us ensure that we're reuniting pets with their families and as quickly as possible.”