[angiefox10]

Reason number four as to why the Villages can’t work with Lost Pets of The Villages and instead instructs their employees to call Animal Control

“Would it be reasonable to entrust a pet to an organization, not in compliance with animal welfare laws?”

hummm I’m not sure what laws we are not in compliance with for our type of group. However, I do know what laws Sumter County Animal Services has not been in compliance with!

First, I will give you the example of the altered Animal Services reports out Sumter County! Caught red handed! After they were caught and called out, they brought down the reports and altered them yet again, STILL not getting them right! Hmmm it seems they “lose” animals just to name ONE problem with the reports.

Second, I give you the case of one of the reports requested from someone in our group. See the photo below. Who is this poor soul? Is someone looking for him? How would an owner know if this is their lost dog? Or anyone else for that matter!

Picked up as a stray, walked in and killed for NO reason. No picture!!!! Not on any FaceBook page, website, NOTHING!!! Walked in as a stray and killed on THE SAME DAY!!!!

Is this what The Villages calls “in compliance with animal welfare law”?

I give you Lost Pets Procedures for dogs. I can’t speak for cats as the cat group handles those.

Lost Pets of The Villages Procedures for dogs
Senate Bill 1576 requires “An act relating to animal welfare; creating s. 3 823.151, F.S.; providing legislative findings; 4 requiring specified entities that take receivership of 5 lost or stray dogs or cats to adopt written policies 6 and procedures to ensure that every reasonable effort 7 is made to quickly and reliably return owned animals 8 to their owners; providing requirements for such 9 policies and procedures; requiring that specified 10 records be available to the public”

Lost Pets of The Villages agrees with this bill and therefore we are publishing our procedures to be posted in the Lost Pets of The Villages group.

Procedures for dogs:

When we receive a call someone has found a dog. We scan with a universal scanner, check tags, take pictures and post the dog in Facebook groups.

We call Community Watch and notify the Radio Station we have found a dog and when we have pictures send pictures.

We post a picture of the dog in Lost Pets of The Villages, The Villages Friendly Folks, Talk of The Villages, The Villages Word of Mouth, our personal wall and Nextdoor asking everyone to share. We can get over 100 shares just from Lost Pets of The Villages. That isn't counting the shares from the shares!

At the same time, we are posting the photo, people are checking photos to see if there is a match, checking all three counties! (Lake, Marion, and Sumter Counties)

If the dog is chipped, we call the chip company and get a phone number and address of the owner. If the information hasn’t been updated, we use the phone book as will as online services to find the owner.

If the dog is not chipped but has any type of tags, we can use the tags and the number on the tag to find the owner by calling the vet or Animal Control in case of Rabies Tag.

If none of this works, we walk and drive around the neighborhood and go door to door looking for the owner as well as passing out our cards for people to notify us if they learn of anyone looking for their dog.

If we still have not found an owner, we send the photo to Animal Control for the county the dog was found in. If it’s on the border, we sent to the counties involved. This way, if an owner goes to Animal Control, they can direct them to us to retrieve their dog. Two of the three counties work in the online groups helping us make matches. (Lake and Marion Counties)
We try to foster in place when possible. We like to keep the dog in the area it was found. as the dog is usually not far from home. When that isn’t possible, we have fosters who will take the dog until we can find the owner. Many of the volunteers foster until we find the owners.

If an owner hasn’t come forward by the time we get home we post in PawBoost as well as Craigslist.

The Lost Pets Team will actively look for an owner for 30 days before turning the dog over to a known reputable rescue.
After 30 days, the dog is turned over to a rescue to be vetted, chipped, neutered, to be adopted out. We will continue to search for the owner until the dog is adopted out. If the dog is from Lake County, we can turn it over to their animal services.
When we find an owner, we take the dog to the owner and verify ownership before handing over the dog.

WE do not rehome or euthanize dogs. We are not a rescue or a shelter. We are a volunteer group that works to keep our pets out of our shelter.

We are on call 24/7, therefore, there is no delay in getting the dog back to the owner.

Most dogs are back home within an hour or less from when we are made aware they were found.

I ask you, who do you think follows the government guidelines better for your pet? Please feel free to go look at the guidelines.

And please respond below, as they are watching this site.

Angie Fox
Lost Pet of The Villages
815-370-9115