How Pets Located Works
Pets Located is different to the other 'lost and found' websites and Facebook groups … here's how:
Pets Located provides a forum for owners of missing pets to post detailed listings of their pet and the last known location. It also provides the finders of lost animals (individuals, vets, Animal Welfare organisations etc) with the facility to post detailed information of animals they have found (free of charge).
Pets Located is an independent service that uses the best available technology to automatically match the information on each posting to any similar ones on the database. This is done 24 hours a day, seven days a week on an automated basis - so, unlike other 'Lost Pet' websites, it does not rely on someone manually checking a listing. Every time a 'lost' or 'found' pet is added to our database, it will automatically be checked against existing entries.
Our unique matching service then immediately e-mails owners with any potential matches for them to review.
Why Use Pets Located?
If you have lost a pet, you are not just paying for an online presence - Pets Located continually searches its listings and automatically matches details of relevant pets which have been registered as missing to pets which have been logged as found. This search takes place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and continues for the whole period of your missing-pet subscription.
If you have not voluntarily removed your posting before the end of your subscription the posting will expire. You will be offered the opportunity to renew your listing by e-mail several days before the expiry date. The renewal notice will be sent to the initial e-mail address that you registered with Pets Located. We do not renew subscriptions automatically.
Pets Located was created to provide an easy-to-use and efficient system for reuniting lost pets with their owners and to ensure that searching continues constantly for the entire period of your subscription.
How The Secure Messaging Service Works
The website's Secure Messaging Service uses a unique Messaging Name for every user. E-mail addresses and phone numbers are never disclosed to other people.
Messages are entered on the website with Owners and Finders being notified by e-mail (and free text, if opted-in) as soon as a message is sent to them. Replies are then sent via the website. The only customer information each party sees is the other user's unique Messaging Name. It is up to each party when/if they choose to give further contact details.
Owners Are In Control …
Pets Located works on the basis that potential matches are sent to Owners who can then contact Finders if they wish to.
We did a lot of research and found that a large proportion of owners who have lost their pet prefer to contact Finders themselves rather than receive lots of messages from different people who are trying to help when they've seen a found pet, which may be a potential match, listed somewhere, but possibly don't know much about the pet. A number of people have explained that this causes them further distress because they can't actually get definitive answers about the pet.
We therefore ask everyone who has found a pet to register it free of charge on Pets Located so that owners will be notified of the potential match and can then make contact direct with the person who has full details of the pet.
We are working on giving owners the option to choose to receive messages from 3rd parties, but this is not yet available.
The Unique Matching Engine
Pets Located uses our own, bespoke and highly technical Matching Engine to match the lost pets against the found ones. Think 'online-dating for lost and found pets'.
The Matching Engine works by taking a large number of pieces of information about each pet, comparing them and producing a matching rating from 1/5 to 5/5 based on how strong the match is deemed to be. This includes the distance between the two listings, the age, coat (for cats/dogs) and many more factors (approximately a dozen in total).
This is run every time a lost pet is added or updated and several times an hour for found pets – 24 hours a day, every day, including holidays/Christmas etc when other organisations are not working.
Consider These Key Benefits of Registering Your Lost Pet
- Pets Located continually searches for your missing pet, 24 hours a day, for the full term of your subscription
- Free instant e-mail notifications of potential matches
- Fresh, active database, new postings hourly
- Numerous Animal Welfare Organisations as well as members of the public constantly add found pets, which are automatically checked against the Lost Pets database
- The Pets Located website is fast, reliable and easy to use
- Secure communication for both owners and finders through the website's Secure Messaging System - no personal details or the exact location of pets are ever given to the other party
- Ability to opt-in for a free text as soon you get a reply to a message you've sent
- Matches are based on key features including distance and are graded according to strength of match
- Automatic e-mails are sent advising owners about potential matches as soon as matching pets are added to the database
- The Pets Located web site is FREE for finders of lost animals to create a posting
- The Pets Located web site makes only a small charge starting from £6.00 per pet for an owner posting details of their missing pet
- You may be able to claim the cost of your Pets Located posting back from your pet insurance company (dependant on the terms and conditions of your particular policy)
- The Pets Located web site is search-engine optimised to ensure maximum exposure for your missing pet listing
- All lost and found registrations are immediately posted to over 13,700 followers on Twitter and other websites via RSS Feeds as well as our own Pet Alerts system. The details are not only seen by Animal Welfare organisations in your area, but are also regularly retweeted by our followers. We also have 6,600 followers on Facebook who share the information with other people and organisations
- Pets Located brings together lost and found pets in one place, enabling local authority dog wardens, vets, animal rescue centres, animal charities and members of the public to access one port of information to maximise the opportunity of reuniting a pet and its owner
- As soon as a registration is complete, you can print free, ready-to-use posters from within your account
- We regularly post to Facebook groups in the relevant area for both lost and found pets
- Continual improvements and updates to the website to make it even better for you
For more details and information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page
To register details of a missing pet, click here
To register details of a pet you have found, free of charge, click here
