City of Meridian Animal Shelter selected for pilot project to get lost dogs home

Published 3:19 pm Thursday, May 8, 2025

Nearly 10 million pets go missing in the U.S. every year — and many of them never make it back home. But Meridian is taking action.

 

City of Meridian Animal Shelter is one of just 25 shelters nationwide selected to participate in Network Neighbors, a new pilot project led by Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters.

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Launched earlier this week, Network Neighbors, supported by Petco Love Lost, aims to reunite lost pets with their families by getting critical information into the hands of the people who find them — right in their own neighborhoods. Lost or stray pets make up the largest percentage of animals entering shelters, and the Network Neighbors pilot program aims to empower the community to help reunite families.

 

Local volunteers are supporting City of Meridian Animal Shelter by distributing bilingual yard signs featuring a QR code that links to Petco Love Lost, a free, easy-to-use online tool that helps match found pets with their families, providing a simple way for found pets to easily be returned to their home before they are ever brought to a shelter.

 

Approximately 70% of lost dogs are found within a mile of their home. The signs are going up in areas where City of Meridian Animal Shelter’s last 12 months of data has shown a higher-than-average number of lost dogs.

 

“It is truly heartbreaking when a lost pet enters shelter, and we know someone is missing them as much as they are missing their family,” Brian McCary, supervisor for the city’s animal control and shelter, said.

 

“We are thrilled to be part of this project and help more of these animals get back to the people who love them. Not only are families reunited, but doing so makes sure our kennels aren’t filled with pets who already have a home,” McCary said.

 

The signs are just the start.

 

Over the next several months, City of Meridian Animal Shelter, Best Friends, and Petco Love will be tracking the grassroots efforts’ impact in the community. The program will primarily record and analyze dog data, because shelters have more data on the found locations of lost dogs — making it easier to measure impact. The goal is to impact both cats and dogs. If successful, Network Neighbors could expand to communities across the country — potentially reuniting thousands of pets and their families.

 

“Network Neighbors is all about working together to get lost pets back to their families, and save lives while doing it,” Whitney Bollinger, director of strategy and network operations for Best Friends Animal Society, said “We are grateful to the Meridian Animal Shelter and local volunteers for being part of this important project, the lifesaving impact of which will be felt in Meridian and across the country.”

 

The pilot program is a collaboration with Petco Love and uses the free Petco Love Lost online tool that utilizes AI to recognize the characteristics of found pets and match them with similar pets reported missing in the area. Pet owners can create free profiles for their pets at Petcolove.org to increase the odds of their pets being reunited if they ever go missing.

 

Nationally, the number of dogs being reunited with their owners increased in 2024 by 2.5% over 2023, with 509,000 dogs getting back home — but the rate has still not returned to 2020 levels. Best Friends Network has designed Network Neighbors to help close that gap. Nearly 2,000 organizations were considered for the pilot program. The City of Meridian Animal Shelter and the additional 24 animal shelters were selected based on their lost dog data and eagerness to innovate to save lives.

 

For more data and information about the number of pets entering shelters or being reunited with their owners (returned-to-home), visit the 2024 National Data Report.

 

About Best Friends Animal Society

 

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters and make the country no-kill in 2025.

 

Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to 415,000 last year. Best Friends runs lifesaving programs across the country, as well as the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary. Working collaboratively with a network of more than 5,100 animal welfare and shelter partners, and community members nationwide, Best Friends is working to Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.