A Facebook page, run from a Louisiana town, is dedicated to reuniting lost pets with their owners and has helped to decrease the number of lost pets who never return to their families.
Valerie Robinson, manager at the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter, told Daily Comet that she and her staff check the Facebook page daily and tell residents to watch the page when their pets go missing.
As a result, Robinson said her shelter saw a 31 percent increase in the number of animals that returned to their owners.
The Facebook page, called Lost Pets Of Terrebonne Parish, was started by locals Jennifer Davis and Traci Daigle in February 2013.
"There wasn't a central location for people to put that they lost their pets," Daigle told Daily Comet. "They would end up at shelter, and if they don't get adopted, some of them don't stay alive. It's so tight at the shelter; they don't have a lot of room."
When someone finds a lost animal, they post a picture of the pet to the page. The picture is then shared by Facebook users in the community until the picture reaches someone who knows who the animal belongs to.
Davis recalls one dog that was lost and reunited with his owner in less than a week at the end of December.
A dog named Butch escaped from the car when he was riding with his owner to a CVS. Shortly after, there were several posts from locals who saw Butch roaming around the neighborhood. The constant updates on the page allowed the owner to be reunited with her dog on New Year's Day.
"I'm amazed by all the good people and how the community pulls together to help one another out," Davis told Daily Comet. "The page shows you how great of a community Terrebonne Parish is. They're not just helping each other, but they're helping their four-legged friends as well."
The page isn't just limited to dogs. There are also postings on the page with lost and found cats, goats, pigs, rabbits, birds and reptiles.
