Larry and Diane Watters, of Naperville, lost their miniature dachshund Noah when he got away from them during a walk.
Noah is 5 years old, and it was the first time the couple had lost him. He was only missing overnight, but their children jumped onto social media right away to help find him.
“Our kids got on Facebook and put his picture all over,” Diane said. “Even our son in Florida was posting stuff. They had the whole city looking for him.”
The Watters’ daughter believes the woman who returned their dog saw the posts on Facebook so she called them to return Noah the next day.
Joanne Aul, Naperville animal control supervisor, said her department has received a consistent number of service calls in recent years but is impounding far fewer animals. If an animal is not claimed after seven days, it is impounded to a nearby shelter.
Aul said she believes this is due to the benefits of new technology, including social media and computer software connected to registration tags and microchips on animals.
“We also use the city of Naperville’s Facebook page to post impounded animals, so owners can look there and other websites like lostdogsillinois(.org) and Lost Cats of Illinois,” Aul said. “A lot of animals make their way home because of that, rather than going into a shelter, which is great.”
Aul said animal control has a 50 to 60 percent return to owner rate for lost animals, which is higher than the national average.
Naperville Animal Control used to impound nearly 600 animals a year but that number has dropped to about 400.
City animal registration tags in Naperville have recently been made free, which has also made it easier to return lost pets to owners, Aul said.
The registration tags, as well as new computer programs at the police department, allow animal control officers to conduct more enhanced searches than before, which helps decrease the number of impounded animals in Naperville.
In Aurora, more than 1,500 animals were impounded last year.
Animal registration tags for altered animals, with a microchip, are free in Aurora. However, they must be renewed annually.
Richard Smith, animal control and care manager for Aurora, estimated that only 15 percent of the stray animals in Aurora have a microchip or registration tag, which makes it harder to return them.
More than 500 residents of Aurora surrendered their pets to animal control in 2014. Social media, such as Facebook, played a key role in finding many of those animals a new home.
“Social media has been vital in assisting shelters with finding homes for the unwanted animals surrendered by their owners and animals impounded as strays and abandoned by their owners at the shelter,” Smith said. “Most shelters, animal rescues and humane organizations have Facebook accounts and are working together to promote shelter animals.”
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