Celebrate Central: Lost Pets of Central City, LA

    Central Speaks is bringing back a series that we began in 2010 called Celebrate Central.  This series focuses on local organizations and efforts that help to make the Central community a better place.  If you have any suggestions for a Celebrate Central article, send an email to [email protected] and let us know!

By Beth Fussell
    Lost Pets of Central City, LA was established on Facebook in April of 2013.  The page has been run anonymously for two years by Theresa Wilson, a long time Central resident and parent of students in Central Community Schools.  Theresa is an animal lover who grew up on a large farm with lots of livestock and pets, and she now has two dogs (a lab and a rat terrier) and several horses.  Her thoughtfulness toward animals even extends to the deer she and her kids occasionally feed and watch on game cameras and to the baby squirrel she nursed back to health and kept as a pet.  With this sort of background, it seems natural that Theresa would respond to a need she saw in the Central community to help reunite lost pets with their owners.
    Theresa’s inspiration to start Lost Pets of Central came when she was reading other lost pet sites on Facebook.  She noticed that Baton Rouge, Denham Springs, Livingston, and Zachary all had their own pages for lost animals.  While some Central pets were posted on these pages, most of the page members didn’t live in Central and were unfamiliar with the area.  So Theresa set up the Lost Pets of Central City, LA Facebook page and started reposting lost and found animals from the other pages that she knew were in the Central area.  The page now has over 2,000 followers.  While posts on the page can be seen by everyone, it helps to follow the page to get updates on local lost pets.  
    When asked about the success of the page, Theresa says that it has helped to reunite hundreds of lost pets with their owners.  She happily notes that it is getting to a point now where there are more pets on the page that are returned home than pets that stay lost. The page is not just for dogs and cats – any lost pets are welcome.  Theresa dedicates herself at all hours of the day to helping find pets.  She posts updates any time she is alerted about a lost or found pet, even in the middle of the night.  Theresa also finds other ways to help.  She has walked neighborhoods to find pets that people have seen in the vicinity.  She pays close attention to other Facebook pages to help spread the word if a local pet is lost.  She even posts weather alerts when the temperatures get too cold to leave pets outside.
    Central community members are doing their part to make the page a success, as well.  There are several posts a day about pets that have been lost, found, or spotted around Central.  Some local citizens have taken it a step further and have offered in the past to foster found pets or to help pay for pet care.  If you would like to help reunite pets with their owners, it’s easy to “like” Lost Pets of Central City, LA on Facebook so you can keep an eye out for these animals.  If you find or lose a pet, post a photo if you have one, the specific date and location where you lost or found it, and a contact number where you can be reached.  Don’t delete posts after they have been resolved.  Lost and found pet posts are archived so that if a pet goes missing or is seen again, the information is readily available.  Remember also to take preventative steps for your own pet so it does not get lost.  Keep a collar and tags on it, get it microchipped, and don’t leave small pets outside where coyotes and other animals can get to them.
    Theresa summed up her motivation for maintaining the page by saying, “Animals can’t talk.  They can’t explain that they are lost or tell you where their home is.”  Lost Pets of Central City, LA can be found on Facebook or emailed at [email protected].