Fluffy Lost? Soon You Can Try the Web

Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved spending $100,000 to place pictures of pets--lost, found and awaiting adoption--on a county Web site.

The county may also become the first one in the state with Web information on dead pets reported to animal control officers. The pets’ descriptions would be posted in hopes of notifying their owners.

“No other city or county has a service like this, and we want to add it, but it needs to be done sensitively because we’re dealing with deceased pets,” said Mike Spurgeon, director of regulatory health services at the Orange County Health Care Agency, which oversees the county’s animal shelter.

To help launch the Web site, actress Loretta Swit from the TV series M*A*S*H is expected at a news conference today at 10:30 a.m. in the lobby of the county Hall of Administration in Santa Ana.

Spurgeon said he is excited about the additional services, including giving grieving pet owners information that may ease uncertainty over a lost pet.

“We will return to the board in six months after consulting with our advisory board on how to proceed,” he said. “We have the concept, but it’s a question of sensitivity.”

The shelter on The City Drive in Orange has had a tempestuous year in which its director and chief veterinarian stepped down under fire. They had been harshly criticized by veterinarians and animal rights advocates for not stemming a distemper outbreak among cats at the shelter and for failing to inoculate all strays.

Shelter officials also were criticized for being slow to adopt mandatory neutering rules and for failing to create a friendly environment for adopting pets.

The additional resources are intended to help improve the shelter’s public image, Supervisor Todd Spitzer said. Pictures and other information on adopting pets will be posted by June 30. Information on lost and found animals is scheduled to appear by Aug. 31.

Web sites are a tremendous tool for shelters, according to Kay Morefield, a volunteer at the nonprofit Seal Beach Animal Care Center. The center’s site is accessed 500 to 600 times on weekend days and at least 300 times on weekdays.

“We had a mother dog and her seven puppies on the Web for five weeks. They were born on Mother’s Day,” Morefield said. “We gave the public updates all on the Web site. On Sunday, six of them were adopted.”