Miami-Dade County Animal Services is partnering with Petco Love Lost to help families find their missing cats and dogs in the county.
Petco Love Lost, a national nonprofit organization, has reunited thousands of pets with their owners in Florida and beyond.
The organization uses breakthrough photo-matching technology to find missing pets and then locate their pet owners.
Petco Love Lost is a free, easy-to-use lost-and-found tool that unifies lost and found pet listings from across the country, including posts from thousands of animal welfare organizations, Nextdoor and Neighbors by Ring into one searchable database.
The platform uses photo-matching AI to help reunite pets by comparing images of lost pets with those of found pets.
The program is accessible to both animal welfare organizations and the general public.
Petco Love Lost allows anyone who has lost or found a pet to upload a photo and instantly search for possible matches in nearby shelters or in the community.
Features include a scrollable list of pets currently in Animal Services’ care and an interactive map that displays lost and found reports, shelter pets and community posts from Neighbors and Nextdoor— all conveniently viewable on Animal Services’ website.
“We work tirelessly for pets in our care, and that includes helping lost pets get home and back to their families where they belong,” said Annette Jose, Director of Miami-Dade Animal Services “There’s nothing more rewarding than reuniting families with their beloved pets and with Petco Love Lost, we’re confident it can lead to many more happy reunions, right here in Miami-Dade.”
Petco Love Lost President Susanne Kogut said one in every three pets will go missing in their lifetime.
“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 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 Animal Services, our goal is to Unite to Reunite and keep pets where they belong – at home, with you.”
Since its debut in 1999, Kogut said Petco Love Lost has empowered animal welfare organizations by investing nearly $421 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts.
“We’ve helped find loving homes for more than 7 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide,” she said. “Our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us.”
Miami-Dade County Animal Services shelters roughly 15,000 cats and dogs each year that were abandoned, injured, ill or abused.
Some belong to pet owners who lost them or got lost.
The county vaccinates and sterilizes the animals and subsequently puts the pets up for adoption hoping families will give them a new home.
For more information about the program, visit miamidade.gov/animals and follow @adoptmiamipets and petcolovelost.org and join the conversation @PetcoLoveLost on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
