GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County Animal Services is partnering with Petco Love on a shared mission to help reunite lost pets with their families should they ever go missing.

To help families bring their best friends back home, the photos of all stray dogs or cats brought into the shelter are uploaded to the Petco Love Lost national database, which immediately searches for a match with patented facial recognition technology. The technology looks at the size, color, facial features, and coat attributes to make a match. If the lost pet’s photo is in the Petco Love Lost database, the pet owner will be notified, and the family will be reunited.

Commission Chairman Wayne Bolla said, “Our shelter is already full, and the July 4^th holiday typically brings in many animals that get lost because they are frightened by fireworks. Petco Love Lost can get them home quickly, and not in the shelter waiting to be found.”

Clay County Animal Services Shelter Manager Aymie Hellard said, “Petco Love Lost is a fantastic tool we have at the shelter to reunite lost pets with their owners, but we need the community’s help to make it the most effective.”

Pet owners are encouraged to add their pet’s photo to the database when they are safe at home and if they ever go missing, owners can log into their account and mark the pet as lost. The database will instantly scan for a match. You will be notified if the lost pet is at the Animal Services shelter or if the person who found your pet added their photo to the database. If a match is not found, users can create a lost or found pet alert to share on social media and receive notifications about their pet.

Anyone can upload a photo of a lost or found pet or search the free national lost and found pet database on the Petco Love Lost website at https://lost.petcolove.org/.

The photos of all pets brought into the shelter are linked to the national database and also searchable on the Clay County Lost and Found Animals photos page here: https://www.claycountygov.com/community/animal-services/programs-and-services/lost-and-found.

Visit ClayCountygov.com and under the “Community” tab select “Animal Services” and “Lost and Found.”

“We know that one in three pets goes missing in their lifetime, an estimated 10 million pets each year, and we’re not ok with that,” said Petco Love president Susanne Kogut. “That gives us 10 million reasons why we created Petco Love Lost, because we believe nothing is more important than keeping people and pets together for a lifetime of love. Together with Clay County Animal Services, our goal is to keep pets where they belong - at home, with you.”

To learn more about Clay County Animal Services visit https://www.claycountygov.com/community/animal-services and follow https://www.facebook.com/ClayCtyAnimals. If you’ve lost or found a pet, Petco Love Lost is here to help get them home. Visit https://lost.petcolove.org/about  or join the conversation @PetcoLoveLost on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.