Why Pets Go Missing: Lost Pet Safety Tips for Shelters

Animal shelters and other animal welfare organizations are responsible for reuniting lost pets with their families. Unfortunately, pets can still go missing while under organizational care. This guide will help animal welfare organizations create more secure environments and safeguard pets during their time with the organization.

Why Pets Go Missing: Common Causes in Shelter Settings

Animal Behavior and History:

• Flight response triggered by fear or noise
• Poor socialization or history of abuse/neglect
• Athletic or high-energy dog scales or digs under a fence
• Feral cat forced inside becomes fractious and escapes

Equipment Failure:

• Inadequate fencing or damaged enclosures
• Faulty latches on kennels or play yards
• Broken or cheap leashes

Human and Organizational Errors:

• Poor animal handling during transport or intake
• Not requiring cats to be moved in carriers and dogs on leashes
• Failure to properly fit a dog’s collar
• Failure to securely latch a kennel or gate
• Poor organizational tracking of animals
• Poor security practices result in unauthorized pickups by shelter visitors

Which Pets Are Most Likely to Go Missing?

Pets that are most likely to go missing or escape from shelter care include:

• Shy, fearful, and anxious animals
• High-energy or athletic breeds
• Dogs with strong prey drive
• Poorly socialized cats
• Animals that are unaltered and in search of mates
• Newly arrived pets who are unfamiliar with the environment
• Pets with a history of trauma

Shelter pet safety protocols should apply to all animals, but extra precautions may be necessary for animals who fall into these categories.

Preventing Escapes: Shelter Infrastructure and Kennel Tips

The following shelter safety checklist will help you review your shelter infrastructure to evaluate pet escape risks:

• Fencing should have a minimum height of 6-ft.
• Horizontal bars and chain-link fencing are the easiest to climb. If you have chain-link fencing, consider having a roof or netting over the top of the yard.
• Any outdoor location for cats, such as a catio, should have secure roofing.
• Consider having at least one play yard for dogs that has roofing, angled fence toppers, or coyote rollers to prevent scaling.
• To prevent digging, use concrete floors and/or dig guards.
• Use a two-gate entry system for yards.
• Check the integrity of the latches during walkthrough each day.
• Put high-risk animals in completely enclosed locations only.

It is common for flighty cats to escape into paneled ceilings. If you are unable to alter your ceiling to prevent this, you can use humane traps to try to capture cats who have escaped.

Staff Training and Protocols That Reduce Loss

The following ideas could help prevent loss in shelters because of human error:

• Prior to animal transfers, develop a secure transport plan with your team and review it.
• Make sure your intake team has a secure location to perform an animal’s intake care. Cat intake care should occur in an enclosed room without any outdoor access points.
• Train your staff and volunteers on proper animal handling practices, including leash handling, proper fitting of collars, and the use of cat carriers.
• Teach staff how to use double leashing or martingale collars for high-risk dogs.
• Make inspection of infrastructure and latches part of the daily shelter walkthrough.
• Doors should never be propped open.
• Run response drills for missing pet alerts.
• Visitors should always be supervised.
• Have visual cues that identify high-risk pets for staff and volunteers.
• Perform daily headcounts or inventories of animals.

Identification Measures That Protect Pets

Proper identification of pets is just as important while they’re in the shelter as it is post-adoption. These microchip and ID tag tips will help your shelter with pet identification and tracking.

• Microchips: All pets should be scanned for a microchip upon entry into the shelter. If a microchip is found, the registry should be checked for owner information. If no microchip is found, one should be implanted immediately.
• ID Tags: All shelter animals, including those in foster, should have ID tags on their collars that identify them as a shelter animal and include shelter contact information.
• Shelter ID Number: All animals should additionally have an ID number that’s unique to your shelter. If you are using shelter software, this number is automatically assigned once the pet is entered into the system.
• Additional Measures: QR code collars could be scanned by finders and show your shelter’s contact information.

What to Do If a Pet Goes Missing from a Shelter

No matter how the pet goes missing, whether a dog broke out of a play yard or a cat escaped its carrier during transport, having a lost shelter pet is stressful.

The following is an example of a step-by-step plan to take if an animal goes missing from shelter grounds:

• All staff and on-site volunteers should be alerted that there is a lost pet. They should immediately secure any pet they’re handling and join the search if they’re able.
• Identify how the pet escaped and prevent any other animals from using that escape route.
• Unless you know the animal was already outside when it escaped, a quick search of the entire shelter should occur. Entrances and exits should be secured. All rooms and yards should be checked. Someone should be assigned to walk the perimeter and check around cars, bushes, and trees.
• If the animal is not found on-site, it’s time to alert the community. Include the pet’s name, description, microchip information, and photo. You should also provide an immediate means of contact for the shelter.
• Post pet alerts or notifications in the following locations:
  • The shelter’s social media pages
  • Local lost-and-found pet social media pages
  • Local veterinary clinics
  • Animal control
  • Other area shelters and animal welfare organizations
• Flag the animal as missing in the appropriate microchip registry and ensure the animal is not listed as “Available” in your shelter system.
• Send staff and volunteers to walk and drive nearby streets. Ensure they have highly desirable treats and a means of containing the animal.
• If necessary, place humane traps around your shelter.
• Make sure that the incident is documented and that shelter management is notified. Your report should include the last sighting of the animal, how they escaped, and what steps were taken to recover the animal.
• Continue to check stray intake reports and reshare your social posts. Check your organization’s outdoor cameras for after-hours sightings.
• Once the pet is recovered, a veterinary exam should be performed to ensure the pet is not injured or ill.
• Inform everyone you notified that the pet has been found. If the public was affected, release a statement stating how the animal escaped, how they were found, and steps that are being taken to prevent recurrence.

Any time your organization has an animal go missing, shelter leadership should review animal shelter containment strategies to identify areas for improvement.

Your animal welfare organization should also develop similar policies to follow if a pet goes missing while in foster care or immediately after adoption.

Lastly, the organization should keep in mind the legal and reputational considerations of reporting that an animal is missing:

• If the animal was privately owned (e.g. in protective custody or on stray hold), the shelter may be liable for their loss.
• If the animal was a stray under a municipal contract, make sure you understand the process of reporting a lost animal.
• Consider reporting the incident to your organization’s insurance provider.
• Never blame individual employees or volunteers in your public statements.
• Do not include anyone’s private contact information without permission.

Community Engagement for Prevention and Recovery

Animal welfare organizations should engage their community in the prevention and recovery of lost pets. Consider the following tips for community engagement:

• Build relationships with local animal control to protect lost pets.
• Educate adopters on how to securely contain their pets.
• Create a “lost pet safety packet” for new families.
• Include pet escape prevention tips in your blog or newsletter.
• Host clinics for microchipping pets.
• Have an ID tag engraving machine in the shelter.
• Create a fundraising event.