Manual For Pet FBI "Special Agents"

Pet FBI Manual For Special Agents "Detective Division" ​

How Anyone Can Help Lost Pets Get Back Home ​

STEP ONE -Sign up for Special Agent Alerts

**Get a real time email alert whenever a lost or found pet is reported for your chosen area. (Zip Code + radius, up to 200 miles). You can also specify one or more categories of pets: cats, dogs, birds, reptiles, small mammals, “other” or “all”. (Note: You can change your settings or unsubscribe at any time)

Once you sign up, you will start receiving Special Agent Alerts like this one:**

Sample Special Agent Alert

If you want to share the information to your Facebook page or your friends', it's an easy two or three click process.

STEP TWO:Connect the Dots!

**Lost and Found Pet Reports are scattered everywhere!**That makes it hard for people who have lost a pet to connect with the people who have found it. The Pet FBI lost pet database is extensive and the easiest to use national database online. (Just compare with others and see if you don't agree.) But there are still many other web sites and places where there are reports we do not have.

Your job as a Pet FBI Special Agent is to try to match the Pet FBI report to its counterpart using a variety of sources. For example: a lost dog report on Pet FBI and a Found Dog report for what seems to be the same dog on Craigslist or a Facebook page. Most people who have lost a pet are so distressed they cannot think straight or they are too busy out looking that they post their report in only one or two places and they never consider any others. That's why they need help from volunteers like you who are clear-headed and methodical.

Here's a list of places to check for lost and found pet reports:

1. Craigslist.com (check daily) - Check both "Lost and Found" and the "Pets" section. People post lost and found pets in both categories. You could also contact the poster and refer them to Pet FBI.
2. Lost and Found Facebook pages - you will have to research these by doing a search for your area
3. Your local Humane Society and Shelter Facebook pages
4. Your local shelter's web page and perhaps their own database - if they post intakes
5. HomeAgain.com - Sign up for notifications of pets lost in your area that have a HomeAgain microchip
6. PetKey.com - Sign up for notifications from various microchip companies
7. Pawboost.com - Will send notifications of postings from individuals
8. Lostmydoggie.com - Also sends out alerts

Unless you have a photographic memory - you will have to work out a system to keep track. You could cut and paste reports into a file on your computer and sort by "cat", "dog", etc. To be most effective you should limit yourself to a well-defined area: your city, or your county, for example.

Ideally, there would be one huge central database where all the information is in one place, just as there is a national registry of stolen cars. Realistically, there will always be multiple sources of information. BUT - as the Pet FBI database becomes more and more well known and widely used, the odds for finding a lost pet will get better and better and it will be faster and easier for people to recover their pets.

As part of your job asspecial agent, you should encourage people to submit their lost or found report to Pet FBI. When they do they will receive automatic alerts of possible matching reports. Not to be confused with Special Agent Alerts, the New Report Alerts are sent automatically to anyone who submits a lost or found pet report to the database at petfbi.org. They are tailored to the situation. For example, if you report a lost cat, you will be sent any new reports for found cats. They work for 90 days and they cover all possible matches for a 25 mile radius of the zip code used in their report.

Another advantage of using PetFBI.org is that the site provides great tips and comprehensive step-by-step advice. Best of all - there are NO FEES. Every feature is absolutely free - which is not the case with many of the sites above. Also, since Pet FBI is non-profit we can refer people to all other sources of information.

As a Special Agent you will need to work out a system for yourself and keep at it regularly. But your work will be well rewarded when you are discover the information that will get a lost pet back home.

Thanks for becoming part of the Pet FBI team!