HUNTER: (noun) 1a: One who pursues with intent to find or capture b: a dog used or trained for hunting
Seattle Pet Hunters
Missing Pet Partnership is proud to announce the formation of Seattle Pet Hunters, a volunteer pilot program designed to reunite lost companion animals with their families in King County, Washington. The term "pet hunter" is used intentionally. Most families who've lost a companion animal are simply NOT using the proper search strategies, techniques, or resources required to find a missing pet. Most people post 8 ½ X 11 flyers (which actually can't be read by driver's passing by) and they passively wait for someone to call them if they have seen their lost pet. These people typically feel hopeless, helpless, and they quickly give up, never finding their missing dog or cat. Those companion animals end up somewhere, most often in local (or distant) shelters or rescue groups where they contribute to high euthanasia rates. Missing Pet Partnership has a philosophy for finding lost pets that makes perfect sense. It is the same philosophy involved in looking for missing people: If you want to find a lost person, you need to physically SEARCH (hunt) for them!
In April 2008, Seattle-based volunteer Carol Hawley was gracious enough to donate her photography skills to MPP. Carol attended our first Seattle Pet Hunters MAR dog evaluations and photographed the evaluation of twelve dogs for our MAR program. She then developed these into an inspirational slide show, which we hope you’ll enjoy! Carol’s photography is just amazing. You can visit her web site at www.agalleryvisit.com.
Starting in May 2008, Seattle Pet Hunters will begin to utilize volunteers to conduct aggressive, physical searches for lost pets using trained search dogs, high-tech equipment, and CSI-like investigative techniques to solve lost pet investigations. In addition, we hope to test out innovative lost pet recovery techniques designed to help animal shelters reunite stray (lost) dogs and cats with the families who could not find them. Lost pets that are not found are a major (yet overlooked) contributing factor to high euthanasia rates in our shelters. Most shelters "rush to re-home" in order to save animals lives, yet very few make a strong effort to reunite lost pets (let alone reunite strays they are holding) with their families. Missing Pet Partnership hopes to test out new concepts in King County and ultimately develop them in shelters across the USA, saving the lives of many companion animals!
Our progress will be slow because our funds are low and we will need time to train volunteers. For this Seattle program to succeed, we'll need volunteers and donations! Periodic updates will be made to this page, so check back after April 15th for more details. Or, if you'd like to volunteer, donate, or if you have questions send email to info@pethunters.com.
Seattle Pet Hunters Calendar of Events
Congratulations:
The following future MAR K9's (and their humans) passed their MAR K9 evaluations on April 12th: Harley (MAR Cat Detection), Rascal (MAR Trailing), Holly (MAR Cat Detection), Drake (MAR Trailing), Rachelle (MAR Trailing), Buddy (MAR Trailing), Lizzie (MAR Trailing), Winston (MAR Trailing), Elizabeth (MAR Trailing), and KY (Dual Purpose--Ky will be trained both to detect cats and to trail lost dogs). We will now start working with each of these dogs in hopes of getting them on-line and out tracking lost pets in King County in the near future.
Upcoming Trainings:
Training will take place on Saturday April 26, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. and then again on Saturday May 3, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. at North Seatac Park located at 13600 Des Moines Memorial Dr, Seattle, WA.
Only the above mentioned MAR dogs in training will participate at this training. We will not evaluate any new dogs until May or June. However, observers ARE invited to come out and observe and network even if they do not bring a dog. Even if you don't want to train a dog to find lost pets, there are many other ways to volunteer for Missing Pet Partnership, including helping to work the search dogs that we have already trained.
We will meet in the northeast parking lot off of S 128th St at 20th Ave S, which is north of the playfields if you www.mapquest.com the address. The parking lot is the racetrack-looking parking lot northeast of where the star is on the map. Meet at the south end of the parking lot. Look for Kat Albrecht's white SUV, a bright orange "FOUND DOG" sign stuck at the entrance of the park, and DOGS! Further inquiries may be directed to MPP's training office in Federal Way at (253) 529-3999.
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