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The number of found pets being brought to Spring Fire Department stations has risen in the last couple years, said Chief Scott Seifert.
The department rolled out a new program in early August to help expedite the reunification of lost pets with their families
Through a partnership with the Harris County Animal Shelter, the Spring Fire Department now has a pet microchip scanner at each of its nine stations.
“We’re pretty fortunate because a lot of pets get this microchip put in them and the County Animal Shelter decided to partner with Spring first as kind of a pilot program to where they’re actually providing us with these chip readers,” Seifert said.
Kerry McKeel, senior communications specialist with Harris County Animal Shelter, said the shelter looks for ways to engage the community in the return-to-owner process and to divert animals from entering the shelter.
“Our shelter is constantly overcrowded and usually at capacity,” McKeel said. “Fire stations in the community are often a resource for people and through our conversations with Spring Fire Department, they had told us that quite often they would come across lost animals. They would do their best to try to get them back home but didn’t always have a way to find out more information about the animal because a lot of times they would come without collars or tags or anything like that