NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Michaela Schommer with the Hutchinson Animal Shelter said that most of the pets they housed because they were lost due to being scared by fireworks are back where they need to be.
"We call it reclaims, an animal being reclaimed by their original family, but it's it's not easy work finding owners, especially if the pets don't have tags or microchips in them," Schommer said. "I will say this season we were incredibly fortunate, and the majority of the dogs that came into our care due to fireworks have been reclaimed and were able to get reunited back with their families."
They use every method they can to get pets back home.
"A variety of different ways," Schommer said. "We, of course, are going to check the dog first for a microchip, and if they do have a microchip, we're going to look up the chip number, we're going to look up who it's registered to, and hopefully have current up-to-date contact information for the owners. Sometimes they are microchipped, but the owners didn't update their phone number or they've moved, and they can still be dead ends. First microchips, then tags. If they've got a collar or any form of ID, sometimes just even a rabies tag, we will call the vet clinic that gave the rabies, and hopefully they can narrow down and find us who the owner might be. Many dogs coming into our care have no microchip and no tags. We, of course, post photos of them on our social media and on our website and mark them as stray so the public knows. We ask our community, and let me tell you, Hutchinson is wonderful at sharing our Facebook posts. Our stray hold Facebook post gets tons of shares. They get posted in the Reno County Missing Pets Facebook group and Hutchinson Pets pages all over. Lastly, it's the owner's responsibility, if your pet's gone missing, to look throughout your neighborhood, check with your neighbors, but to physically come out to the shelter, to call the shelter, to look through our animals. It's really just a combination, and different animals are reclaimed in different ways."
If your pet is microchipped, it is a simple process to make sure they have the right information, if you have moved or changed contact information.
"You're welcome to come out to the shelter, and we can scan the pet, make sure we've got the correct microchip number, and then we contact the chip company for you and update it in our system, and it will change your address, your phone number, whatever the information is that needs to be updated, and then we send it up to the microchip company for you."
If your pet is not microchipped, getting one is easy, too.
"Microchipping for the community, we do do that," Schommer said. "We charge a small $15 fee, and we schedule a time for you to bring your dog in, or your cat. We microchip any animal, really, and it takes maybe five minutes to microchip them, and to get down your name, address, contact information, and we register it for you. It's that easy."
Call the Hutchinson Animal Shelter to set up a time for microchipping at (620) 694-1924.
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