This post originally ran in 2022 during the Return to Home Challenge. The ideas are still very helpful in returning pets home.

Looking to get more lost pets back home with their families? Two ideas that you can start using right now were shared during the 2022 Return to Home Challenge Huddle with Bobby Mann, formerly of Human Animal Support Services, and Adan Parra, El Paso Animal Services.

The first tip is to use this Return to Home Calculator (created by Human Animal Support Services) to calculate the cost savings of returning more pets home. To answer the question of if you can afford certain return to home programs and supplies, Mann answers, “You cannot afford to NOT invest in this. This calculator shows how you can prove that it’s worthwhile to invest funds into these things.” Mann demonstrated on the Huddle that if 100 more strays were returned home at his organization, it’s actually a $25,000 cost SAVINGS. “So when you’re trying to figure out if you can buy a box of microchips, an engraving machine or if you can afford to apply for a grant for someone to do this for me, this will help you quantify that.”

Adan Parra shared a service that El Paso Animal Services created and loves called Animal Services Prime.

“Just as Amazon Prime delivers right to your door, if somebody can’t come and get their pet, we’ll actually have one of our officers take it to them,” said Parra. “We definitely want to make every effort to get those pets back home and that’s one of the things we love to do. We don’t want that pet to sit in the shelter if it doesn’t have to. Whether it’s delivering pets back home, waiving fees or returning out in the field as a best practice, just making every effort to get them home.”

You can watch the full recording to learn more about how to get pets back home.