VERO BEACH — The Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County (HSVB&IRC) offers free pet identification tags to Indian River County residents. Pet owners can stop by the Humane Society, located at 6230 77th Street, Vero Beach to pick up as many as needed. “Pet owners should do everything possible to protect and identify their pets,” said Janet Winikoff, HSVB & IRC Director of Education. Tags can be issued without pets being present. Pet owners are asked to provide as many contact phone numbers as possible including the phone numbers of their veterinarian, friends or relatives. “Sometimes cell phones don’t work. We may have difficulty reaching you but not your neighbor. The more contact information you can provide, the faster we’ll be able to reunite you with your pet,” she added.
HSVB & IRC offers the ID tags as a public service. Each tag is engraved with a unique ID number issued to that particular animal, the Humane Society’s paging service and says “I AM LOST.” Humane Society employees are on-call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to calls for lost or found animals.
In addition to an ID tag, pets should also be microchipped. Pet owners should make arrangements with their veterinarian to have all pets pet microchipped. The procedure is both quick and inexpensive. Even with a microchip, it’s important that pets wear visible identification. “Some people still don’t understand microchipping and may mistakenly assume that a lost pet without a collar and tag is homeless,” Winikoff says. National statistics indicate that only 2 percent of lost cats without ID and only 16-30 percent of dogs without ID are ever found again by their families.
