PAFTA
Can you help me find my lost pet?
No, with apologies, not really.
PAFTA is often consulted by people who have lost their pet, hoping our tracking dogs can help find their pet. Lost pets are so heartbreaking. I’m sorry to say that PAFTA really doesn’t have the skillset to track lost pets. We recommend that you take advantage of pet finding services and professionals, although we don’t know who is best or worst. Many of these services are networking resources that help get the word out about the pet, which seems to be the most effective pet finding method. A quick internet search pulls up these resources that don’t seem to have any obvious scam red flags:
Pet-finding advice and additional resource lists:
Silicon Valley Pet Project (resource list, “5 things to do immediately”)
TownCats.com (comprehensive advice and shelter list for bay area lost cats)
City of San Jose Animal Shelter List (regarding where a lost pet might be turned into an animal shelter)
City of San Jose Current Animal Shelters Occupants (City of San Jose’s current list of animals in their care)
Article about lost pet scam awareness
PetWorks.com (pet detective resource list, including pet communicators about whom you should be wary)
Crowd-sourced lost&found pet networking (national and also san jose based):
PetKey.org (this one has an interactive map)
"All San Jose Lost&Found" facebook page
PawBoost's San Jose facebook page (the local facebook group for pawboost’s presence in San Jose)
LostMyKitty.com, and LostMyDoggie.com.
Bay Area LostDogsCats instagram page
Generalized search resources:
Your local NextDoor app
Writeup on how to use craigslist for finding lost pets
Good luck, fingers crossed!