Hello!
Washoe County Regional Animal Services located in Washoe County, Nevada chose to use the Return to Home Challenge as an opportunity to provide our community with access to public microchip scanning stations. We have installed 8 microchip stations across our county by partnering with a local pet store chain and two other animal rescue organizations in our area! The stations all include a microchip scanner that is corded to the wall and a holder to place the scanner in when not in use. Each station includes signage with instructions on how to use the scanner and a QR code that leads to our new website which was launched for this program! Once a person scans a lost pet they can go to our new helpingpetshome.com website to determine next steps. If they have found a microchip they can lookup the microchip registry using the AAHA microchip lookup tool and contact the microchip company to report the pet found so the owner can get in touch with the finder. If they are unable to find a chip, or the microchip information is no good etc. we have instructions on other things they can do to help a pet get home including walking them around the neighborhood, posting found signs, completing a found report with us, and holding the pet at their home for a short time if safe and feasible while they attempt to locate the pet owner. If they run into any trouble our pet store partners have offered to provide support to any client who has questions or needs help and all store employees have been shown how the stations work. Our goal is to get pets home without them having to come to the shelter.
These stations are a realization of a more than 10 year effort to increase identification for pets in our community. 10 years ago WCRAS began providing free microchips through clinics and during business hours to any Washoe County pet. We have seen a large increase in the last decade in the proportion of pets we encounter that have a microchip and knowing that we have a community dedicated to helping lost pets get home providing the public a way to use microchips to reunite pets just makes sense!
This was also launched in addition to the expansion of our free personalized pet ID tags for Washoe County pets and our free collar and personalized ID tag for pets upon redemption. We have been travelling to a multitude of community events in October to demonstrate and educate the public about the scanning stations and provide personalized pet ID tags at no cost to any resident on the spot! We have given out over 120 pet ID tags to our community since October 1st!
We have had extremely positive feedback from our community and all our partners since launching the microchipping stations. Although we have not had any reported reunifications yet, we have had several reports of the community coming in to scan their own pet for a microchip to look it up and ensure the contact information is up to date, and a few instances where the pet was not microchipped so the finder was asked to follow our steps for reuniting a pet if they did not find a microchip.
Our biggest challenge so far is adding a more interactive way for individuals to be provided tailored instructions based on if they find ID or a microchip or if they are or are not able to contact an owner. We hoped to have this interactive survey up on our new website by October 10th so we could provide a more streamlined an tailored guide to our community members and better track the number of pets being scanned and reunited. We have run into a few snags getting it up and running, but are confident it will be up this week!
Although we don't currently have record of any microchip station pet reunifications yet we are confident that we will soon have some wonderful stories to share!
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Quinn Sweet
Outreach Program Coordinator
Washoe County Regional Animal Services
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2022 07:34 AM
From: Charlotte Otero
Subject: Check in...
Thanks for getting our check in started, Jessica! We are halfway through the challenge period now and want to see how things are going for all our challengers.
- What changes have you made so far?
- What are you having success with?
- What are your challenges?
- Tell us about a successful reunion you've made so far!
If you haven't yet, I encourage you to check out our resource library with items separated by return to home practice
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Charlotte Otero
Community Strategist at Maddie's Fund
she/her
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