NOTICE

THIS NOTE IS NOT INVITING DISCUSSION NOR DEBATE. WE ASK THAT YOU PLEASE RESPECT THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION. We ARE making a difference working together as a community! Let’s keep focused on this!

Acknowledgments

We would really like acknowledge each and every contributor for joining the Missouri Lost & Found Paws presence on Facebook. Without each of you, we cannot help to spread the word about animals in need! Please continue to share the information with other animal lovers. To each of you that share information about a lost or found pet, thank you for your efforts! We truly hope that the information that is shared is found to be helpful for your situation. To all of the volunteers at the shelters and rescues…thank YOU for helping to monitor the situation to help reunite these pets. You are the eyes and ears for so many people. Thank you.

Mission Statement

Missouri Lost & Found Paws is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization sponsored by All Paws Rescue. We are a 100% volunteer based organization focused on reuniting lost and found pets. Our mission includes developing a networked community that fosters a strong commitment to those with lost pets as well as found pets. We foster an environment to do the following:

• Share information about lost and found animals.
• Share tips for searching for lost animals.
• Share tips for reuniting found animals.
• Share information from other public resources about lost and found animals.
• Share tricks to catch a skittish animal.

Please note, Missouri Lost & Found Paws does not have found animals in its possession. We simply share and crosspost information that is shared with us. Please reach out to the original poster for information on the pet in question.

Goals

The primary goal is to get the word out about lost and found animals! So many people don’t realize what happens when an animal is lost. Many people don’t realize how to go about searching for their lost loved one. With all of us working together, we can share this information and help others.

Banning

Freedom of speech shall not apply here. If Missouri Lost & Found Paws makes the determination that someone’s comments are counter-productive to the goals of the page, we will choose to ban that person, with or without warning. We will NOT reconsider these bans at a later date. Once someone is banned, it is permanent. We take much pride in being a fair organization. We realize that you don’t know the Admin team personally, but those who do will hopefully vouch for our behavior, opinion and/or decisions.

We thank you for your time in reading this document. We truly hope that you will continue to follow Missouri Lost & Found Paws, along with its subsidiary organizations, St Louis, Missouri Lost & Found Paws, Rolla, Missouri Lost & Found Paws, St. Francois, Iron & Washington Counties, MO Lost & Found Paws, Reynolds, Shannon, Carter, Wayne & Oregon Counties, MO Lost & Found Paws, East Central Missouri Lost & Found Paws, Central Missouri Lost and Found Paws and South Central Missouri Lost & Found Paws. If you cannot meet the terms of our Rules of Engagement, we respect that and respect your decision to leave us on Facebook. We hope that you won’t leave us, as the impact that this group continues to make in its communities is truly amazing.

Rules of Engagement

While freedom of speech is respected, Missouri Lost & Found Paws must ask that each of our supporters take a moment to remember that this is an organization to service our communities across Missouri. Missouri Lost & Found Paws and its child organizations were set up as public pages for a purpose; to allow people to search via search engines for postings. Therefore, it is important to remember that the conversations that are posted are available to the public for viewing. We believe there is a time and place for public vs private discussions. Sometimes, particular conversations should go offline for the safety of the animals and individuals involved. Missouri Lost & Found Paws group pages and the fan page are not a forum for debate on pet ownership. Our focus is to help individuals and pets. It is that simple. We have zero tolerance for negative comments, judgments of individuals, conversation on why the pet is lost or in its present condition, etc.

We commend each of you who take action to help reunite a lost or found pet. Our focus has been and shall remain on providing support and help to those with lost and found pets. We are NOT here to judge the situations in how animals got lost or found. We ARE here to educate others and provide assistance. At the end of the day, the goal is to get the lost and found fur babies HOME. Please refrain from argumentative discussion or negative commentaries within the group. Missouri Lost & Found Paws supports individual rights to voice an opinion. However, we do reserve the right to delete comments that are hurtful, pointed and contrary to the goals of the organization. We also will not tolerate cursing. Anyone who chooses not to support our rules of engagement will be warned a maximum of three times, and then banned permanently. We are proud of the support that our followers provide to owners. Please feel free to share your personal opinions thru Private Messages as opposed to within the public forum.

We also do not believe in negative commentaries towards those who are trying to help wandering animals. Not everyone is able to bring a found animal home due to a multitude of reasons. We applaud these individuals for sharing the information about the pet they have seen, or found. We also applaud the individuals for getting the found animal into the local shelter. Shelters are a far safer environment than being left on the streets to fend for oneself. Shelters do not euthanize for the purpose of gain. Shelters are faced with the daunting task of continuing to receive countless animals into the facility. They are forced to make space due to the number of animals that continue to come into the shelters. The average animal owner will check a shelter first before they check the multitude of resources available today thanks to technology such as Craigslist, Facebook, STL Lost Pets, and so much more. Please support our local shelters. If you can offer temporary refuge for a found animal, please do offer this to the finder of the animal! We can achieve so much by working TOGETHER!

You can help make space by helping us reunite pets sitting in the shelters. Help us help the shelters. We at Missouri Lost & Found Paws truly believe that for every lost pet we reunite, there is one less animal facing the ticking timer of euthanasia.

Shelters – They are not the enemy!

As we have mentioned since the inception of this group, we are here to get lost and found animals back home with their families. We have developed a fantastic network of community members, shelter volunteers, shelter employees and rescuers. All of these individuals put together is an amazing group of eyes that can and should work together to get pets home.

Our area shelters are not a bad place. Euthanizing an animal is not anyone’s joy. It is not the highlight of a shelter worker’s day. But they are faced with this unrelenting task. Animals keep flowing thru the doors of shelters. In order to take animals in, one has to have space. In order to have space, animals need to reclaimed by owners, adopted or rescued. Our group and its supporters is doing a PHENOMENAL job making the connections with shelter pets. Our group includes our shelter friends and connections.

We would like to ask you all to take a moment and go to our Found Dogs – Unclaimed and Found Cats – Unclaimed albums. These albums list animal after animal after animal that have not been reunited with an owner. And we know that our album does not fully represent the population of found animals. There are many more sitting at area shelters that we don’t have on our group. That is a LOT of unclaimed animals!

Our problem is not the shelters. Our problems include animal owners not knowing what to do when their family member gets lost. Our problems include animal owners not knowing to search all shelters. Our problems include animal owners abandoning their pets. Our problems include pet owners who know their found pet is sitting at the shelter, but they don’t want them back home.

We CAN fix some of these problems thru education. That is what we want to do at Missouri Lost & Found Paws. We want to help owners understand the importance of keeping microchip contact info up to date. We want to help educate on the tips for getting a lost pet home.

We can’t solve the world’s problems but we sure as heck can impact how many lost animals we get back home. We need our supporters to help make that impact.

LET’S PLEASE WORK TOGETHER TO STAY COMMITTED TO THE OBJECTIVES OF MISSOURI LOST & FOUND PAWS. EACH OF YOU IS AN AMBASSADOR FOR LOST AND FOUND PETS. LET’S NOT LOSE THE MOMENTUM THIS GROUP HAS BUILT. WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED FAR TOO MUCH!

If you have any questions or concerns regarding any posts on this page, please contact the Admins of the page directly.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! THANK YOU FOR CARING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY AND ITS PRECIOUS FUR BABIES!

Regards,

Your Admin Team