Chicago nonprofit 'Pet FBI' empowers communities with expert tips to locate missing pets

CHICAGO - It’s a scenario no family wants to deal with, having their pet go missing. When it happens, it can lead to a lot of confusion about what to do first to bring them home safely. In a FOX 32 Special Report, we're sharing some expert tips that every family should know.

It's every pet parent’s worst nightmare: seeing your dog go missing. "It’s a stressful situation. They’re panicking, they may not know what steps to take. And so just having somebody walk them through the most important things to do first is really helpful," said Leslie Poole, executive director of Pet FBI.

That’s where Pet FBI comes in. The nonprofit organization started 25 years ago, aimed at consolidating lost and found pet reports online to help missing animals get home quicker. "Anybody can enter a lost or found pet report into our system for completely free of charge," Poole said. "We send out email alerts once a report is entered. We have a searchable database. And we work with teams of volunteers across the United States and Canada to help people get their lost pets back home."

Unfortunately, thousands of pets go missing each year across the country. So where do you start if it happens to you? Chicago Animal Care and Control says they are a good first place to look if your pet gets loose. "We’re open every day of the year. From 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. We also have a website you can go to and see every animal that’s here in our shelter, which updates hourly," said Armando Tejeda, Chicago Animal Care and Control. "So you’ll be able to see if your pet is here."

Another good first step is creating some fliers and posting them where you last saw your pet. "So those good old fashioned paper fliers are the number one way pets get back home," Poole said. "Most missing pets are found within a mile or so of their location. So start closest to you. And as time goes on. You may want to broaden that reach. Expand your area a little bit."

Poole also recommends putting an item outside your home that belongs to your dog to help them sniff their way home. "Appealing to their sense of smell by putting out their food outside. Their bed, their favorite bed, or blanket," Poole said.

There’s also plenty of steps to take to make sure your dog doesn’t go missing in the first place. John Garrido of Garrido Stray Rescue says a good place to start is never leaving your dog outside on their own. "When dogs are left by themselves, they’ll find ways to get out. Huskies can climb anything and everything. Other dogs will dig under the fence and get out sometimes," Garrido said. "Gates are left open, people will walk through and leave them open. They don’t realize."

Another key step is making sure your dog is microchipped. "Microchips are so important," Tejeda said. "And not just having the microchip but having the information and keeping it up to date. There’s a number of times we get a stray animal in, and we’re doing microchip research, and the address doesn’t match, or the phone number is off."

"A lot of people don’t realize they need to register the microchip," Poole added. "We know that only six out of ten microchips are actually registered with current contact information." "People move," said Garrido. "And they don’t update their registration. So we run into that all the time, where they’ll have a microchip and it’s either not registered or it’s old information. And then it just makes it extremely difficult to track down."

And if you find a lost dog, it's important to remember a few key things to help get them home. "Never chase a lost dog. Never yell at a lost dog. What’s going to happen is you’re going to accidentally chase them out of familiar territory into just potentially dangerous or unfamiliar territory," Poole said. "If you are close enough that you can snap a picture, and post it in our database, post it on Facebook. We recommend that. Let animal control know that there’s a pet loose in the area."

"So I can’t understate the importance of just sharing lost dogs that are posted up on social media," said Garrido. "When an animal gets shared five, six, seven hundred times, a thousand times. That’s that many more opportunities. It grows exponentially … for us to find their home."

"When people find pets, we always tell people, before you bring an animal to CACC, post it on your social media pages, post it on your neighborhood groups," said Tejeda. "Odds are someone is going to know who that dog is."

You can sign up for Pet FBI’s network even if you don’t have a missing pet and help keep an eye out for lost pets in your neighborhood.