For Councils - Reduce Dog Intake with FindMyOwner

Only paid employees of Animal Welfare League NSW look up microchips for FindMyOwner. We are aware that there are strict regulations including but not limited to The Privacy Act 1988 and Companion Animals Act 1998 that must be followed.

Our Microchip Lookup Volunteers have been trained to strictly refer these dogs to council and NOT contact the owner.

Our Microchip Lookup Staff are trained to contact the person listed on the microchip and only pass on personal information with permission. No personal information from microchips is given to the finder without consent from the owner and vice versa.

To paraphrase, it states that seized animals must be delivered to their owner, the council pound or an approved premises “as soon as possible”.

The FindMyOwner program is fully compliant with this by doing everything in our power to return the pet to their owner as soon as possible. Most dogs reported through FindMyOwner return to their owner quickly.

The options for animals found after hours are to either have them held or allow them to continue to roam. Most councils don’t employ on-call rangers to collect/accept friendly stray dogs 24/7.

By using FindMyOwner, the chance of the dog going back to their owner is roughly double compared to the dog going to the council pound. If not reclaimed within 24 hours through FindMyOwner, the dog must still go to the pound.

FindMyOwner aims to reunite more animals with their owners and is happy to collaborate with councils. We can provide microchip numbers of animals found and returned to owners in your council area on a monthly basis if:

1. Your council updates its website with a link to direct suitable finders of lost dogs [and advises staff to do the same] to FindMyOwner Microchip Scanning Locations in your area. See “If my council is interested, what do we need to do?” above for more info. AND

2. The council primarily uses the microchip list to help owners update their pet's microchip details for compliance, if you contact the pet owners. This can include lifetime registration. Please note that we do not provide microchip numbers to councils intending to use our microchip list for issuing immediate fines to pet owners without several warnings (e.g. relating to updating details, lifetime registration etc).

This situation is like a lost dog with a collar and tag going back to the owner.

Lifetime registration laws are arguably one of the biggest barriers to lost dogs being reunited with their owners due to the fees involved that some people cannot afford. Considering this, it's crucial to assess the significant costs to the council incurred by pets entering their shelters and the potential long-term care expenses for un-reclaimed animals against the revenue gained from lifetime registration fees. In almost every case, it is better financially for the council when the animal does NOT enter the facility.

Councils can also run a report on the NSW Companion Animals Register (CAR) to identify all microchipped pets within their jurisdiction that are not lifetime registered. Ensuring microchip information is accurate and up to date is important to the FindMyOwner project. Often, microchip data is already up to date, allowing councils to directly contact pet owners regarding lifetime registration. In instances where microchip information is out of date, we provide assistance to owners to update the microchip. This ensures that councils can effectively contact them for lifetime registration fees.

We encourage your council to join FindMyOwner so we can provide you with a list of microchips of dogs found and returned with FindMyOwner. Your council can then take the appropriate actions necessary. The FindMyOwner team are strong advocates of educating and assisting owners first, where possible but enforcement action still has its place in some situations.

This situation is like a lost dog with a collar and tag but no microchip going back to the owner.

Firstly, we want the pet to be microchipped just as much as you do! Realistically, it is not that likely that an unmicrochipped dog will get reclaimed from a shelter, given the significant expenses involved for owners and how long it can take for an owner to identify that their animal is at the council shelter, if at all.

If an unmicrochipped dog is returned home (after the owner provides reasonable proof that they own the dog), we advise the owner to contact their local council or vet clinic to get the dog microchipped. We also make them aware of the benefits. In most cases, pet owners aren’t purposely avoiding the law, they may require extra education to comply with their obligations under the Companion Animals Act.

Like council staff, unfortunately we have no magic wand that tells us if a finder of a lost dog is the owner or not. The owner might think twice about bringing their dog to the pound after visiting our Microchip Scanning Location though.

Part of our process (even if the pet isn’t microchipped) is sharing a Found Pet Poster of the dog on social media in local groups if the finder isn’t able to, and it may be awkward for the ‘finder’ if people on social media recognise the dog’s owner as the finder.

Finders cannot leave dogs at Microchip Scanning Locations so the dog may end up in the pound anyway if the ‘finder owner’ doesn’t change their mind. They may, however, be less likely to drop their dog off at the pound though as FindMyOwner is a barrier against dogs being left at pounds. We believe FindMyOwner is an excellent system and our average return to owner rates of roughly double that of NSW pounds speaks for itself, but no system is perfect.

People dropping off lost dogs at pounds and vet clinics outside of the council area in which they were found in is an issue, especially after hours when there are limited places that can scan and hold dogs. This has always happened and hasn’t suddenly been introduced because FindMyOwner now exists.

FindMyOwner Microchip Scanning Locations strictly cannot hold dogs, so they won’t be dropped off at our locations. Our return to owner rate for dogs is around 80% so almost every dog that comes to our scanning locations returns home, sometimes after hours when pounds are closed.

For those that are not reclaimed, we are already told by the finder where they found the dog and if they can’t hold the dog or the dog isn’t reclaimed within 24 hours, we instruct them to take the dog to the designated pound for the council area in which the dog was originally found (i.e. the correct pound).

By using FindMyOwner in your council area, there should be less cases of dogs being brought into your council pound that were found in another area as we provide clear guidance as to where the dog must go if not reclaimed.