A company called PetScreening is offering free pet ID tags that act as a sort of “Amber Alert” for lost pets. They have two websites – FidoAlert for dogs and TabbyAlert for cats – where you can register and get a free customized pet tag (an $8 value) engraved with your pet's name and unique ID number and a QR code that is assigned to each pet.
Here's the press release from last year explaining how it works:
Any pet owner in the U.S. can enroll their pets into the free FidoAlert and TabbyAlert network and can generate SMS-text and email alerts when a pet is lost or found. Pet owners self-register their pets through the fast-and-secure platform and can enter up to 10 trusted emergency contacts. If a registered pet owner loses their pet, they can initiate a lost pet alert that sends a SMS-text message with a digital lost-pet flier to everyone in the FidoAlert and TabbyAlert network who are within a few miles of the location where the pet was lost. The text alert includes the lost pet's photo and other helpful information to create near-instantaneous awareness about the lost pet. The digital flier is shareable on social media platforms.
Every pet registered receives a free customized pet tag ($8 value) engraved with the pet's name, unique ID number and QR code that is uniquely assigned to each pet. Anyone who finds a lost pet wearing one of these tags can easily scan the QR code with a cell phone and initiate a FidoAlert or TabbyAlert, even if they are not enrolled in the Alert network. Almost instantaneously, the pet's owner and all of their trusted emergency contacts receive a SMS-text message and email notifying them that their lost pet has been found, along with information connecting them to their pet's finder.
So this is kind of similar to microchips that people have implanted into their pets for the same purpose. But this is totally free!
[thanks to Hiffer Ana-Clara for sending this in!]
