New technologies for tracking and identifying animals are increasing the chances of finding stray pets.
How New Technology Helps Find Missing Pets
Humane societies recently partnered with Petco Love for their new pet finder program, which uses facial recognition technology for pets. You can upload a photo of your pet to the Petco Love Lost site, and the company claims it can recognize them using the same kind of software used to unlock your phone. Other innovative technology can track down your pet using wireless technology.
“Ubiquitous cellular coverage makes it a no-brainer to use the networks to track your pet,” Chris Baldwin, a product manager at Qualcomm Technologies who uses a high-tech collar on his dog, said in an email interview. “This gives people peace of mind that no matter how far away their pet has wandered or strayed, there’s a good chance they can track him down.”
Petco's free facial recognition program launched nationwide last month. The company says one in three pets will go missing in their lifetime. When searching its database for a missing pet, it takes seconds for the software to find a match.
