Missouri Lost & Found Paws would like to take a moment and share our thoughts about  shelters and animal control facilities.

Our shelters and animal control facilities are NOT the enemy.

As we have mentioned since the inception of St Louis, Missouri Lost & Found Paws,  Missouri Lost & Found Paws and its community is focused on getting lost and found animals back home with their families. We have developed a strong network of community members, shelter volunteers, shelter employees, animal control officers and animal welfare advocates. Combined, all of these individuals creates a strong community of animal lovers that work together to get pets home.

Our area shelters and animal control facilities 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 the unrelenting task of evaluating who stays and who goes in order to support the influx of animals coming in from the community they support.   In case you did not know, 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.  Often, the general public is unaware of the current state of affairs at their local shelter.  Their opinions are drawn based upon past history.  If you have not visited your local shelter,  we encourage you to do so.

Many shelters and animal control facilities now have volunteer teams who focus on networking animals in their care for adoption, or to send to animal rescue groups.  These volunteers coupled with facility staff are making a profound difference and decreasing the number of animals euthanized each year.

In our journey since 2011, Missouri Lost & Found Paws feels fortunate to have developed amazingly positive relationships with many shelters across the State of Missouri.  These facilities are quite appreciative of our community’s efforts to get lost and found pets home.  Why?  For every shelter pet that we can reunite, that opens a space for a truly unwanted or abandoned animal.  Think about that.  Let that sink in.  For every lost and found animal we work to get home, we create an opportunity for an unwanted animal to not lose its life to euthanasia.  We can only do this if we as a community stay focused in our mission to get lost and found animals back to their families.

Our problem is not the shelters and animal control facilities. 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 educate owners on ensuring their pet’s microchip is registered.  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 make it happen.

As many of you know, Missouri is known as one of the largest puppy mill states. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could create reputation as one of the states that kicks butt in getting lost and found animals home?

Help us help them get home.