WPD teams up with local non-profit to help reunite owners with lost pets

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington Police Department teams up with Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals to help owners find their lost pets.

According to a press release, Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals is teaming up with WPD again to launch a new initiative to further support our community: microchip scanning stations. According to Heidi’s Hope, this will be the first of many microchip scanning stations planned for New Hanover County. A pet scanning station is a microchip scanning tool that helps owners find lost pets. By making microchip scanning easily accessible, they aim to keep pets out of shelters and reduce overcrowding, providing a vital service for pet owners and the community.

If someone finds a lost pet, they can use this station where they simply grab the scanner, press a button to turn it on and run the scanner on the animal as directed. This device will be available to help the community reunite lost pets with their owners and in the event that the lost pet does not have a microchip, it will also advise them on next steps they can take. It is estimated that one in three pets will go missing in their lifetime, which equates to approximately ten million missing pets each year in the United States.

The new scanning station is open and available for the public to use next to the WPD visitor parking lot at our headquarters on Bess Street.