Why We Made Together Tag

3 years ago Hurricane Katrina separated 600,000 pets from their families. Most were never reunited. Since then we’ve seen family pets languish in shelters after the fires in Southern California, the floods in Iowa and even the ice storms earlier this month in Kentucky and West Virgina. Just as unbelievable are the statistics that one in three dogs and cats will get lost in their lifetime and more than half do not find their way back home. We hear all too often of pets that end up at shelters on euthanasia lists because the microchip they had wasn’t found by the scanner or the phone number associated with the chip was unavailable.

This confounded us. How could a beloved pet’s connection to their family be so tenuous even though we live in an age of innovative technology? Last year we started discussions with the Bay Area Red Cross who were also very concerned about people’s utter lack of emergency preparedness for their pets (and themselves). We realized that what was needed was a tag that improved upon the traditional single point of contact ID tags that most people still rely on. Our research showed us that such a tag was of great interest to owners, especially if it was priced similarly to a traditional tag and didn’t require annual renewal fees or update charges.

Thus Dogster, Inc. made Together Tag, the world’s first web-based, always-on smart pet tag. A one-time fee of $25 enrolls a dog or cat for their lifetime, with no hidden renewal or subscription costs. Online enrollment is easy, and owners have the option of including primary, secondary, and out-of-state contacts in their pet’s profile, as well as a photo, vet contact info, and any special health, diet and care information. Profile and contact information can be updated any time, for free, making it easy to update your account information while you are on vacation, for example, or if a friend or family member is caring for your pet.

When a pet is reported as missing, we immediately send out alerts to shelters in the area where the pet went missing, as well as to community members – similar to an Amber Alert for missing persons. Members can also use our easy tool to make a printable “lost pet” poster to post in their neighborhood.

One final reason we wanted to do this is to help the Red Cross with their pet safety program, and in doing so help raise awareness about emergency preparedness in general. Dogster and Catster donates $5 for every identification tag sold to the American Red Cross. Proceeds help to support its pet safety program.

To learn more about Together Tag and enroll your pets go to http://www.togethertag.com.

Screenshot: Homepage.