Deukmejian Signs Bill Aimed at Helping Owners Find Lost Pets

Gov. George Deukmejian on Friday signed into law a bill designed to help reunite people with their stray pets through a lost and found system run by public animal pounds and shelters.

The bill, authored by Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), requires public pounds, beginning Jan. 1, to provide specified information to owners of lost animals who contact them looking for their pets.

This information will include a recommendation to owners of lost animals to also check with other pounds in the general area if the animal is not located at that pound. Pounds will also be required to keep records of individuals who find animals and report temporarily keeping them.

Current law requires public pounds and shelters to attempt to notify the owner of an impounded animal and wait at least 72 hours after its seizure before killing it.

Proponents complained that in some areas lost pets have been destroyed because their owners have given up the search after calling only one shelter, unaware of the existence of other shelters in the same general area.