Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter (YVAS) is thrilled to announce the launch of its new program, Project Reunite.
Beginning February 2023, YVAS will be providing free collars and ID tags for every dog and cat adopted from its facility as part of their new program called Project Reunite. Nationally, less than 2% of lost cats and 47% of lost dogs are reunited with their owners after entering a shelter. While Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter’s return-to-owner rates are much higher than national statistics (12% and 80% respectively), their ultimate goal is to keep animals with the families that love them. YVAS offers low-cost microchipping for owned pets and microchips for all adopted animals; however, microchips are not visually apparent to finders and often go unnoticed without the proper equipment. Additionally, many Good Samaritans may also be unaware of microchips in general and therefore may not take a found pet to be scanned at a shelter or veterinary clinic. Offering free ID tags and collars provides animals with another easily accessible source of ID for Good Samaritans and Animal Control Officers when lost/stray animals are found wandering. The shelter also plans to host a variety of pop-up events around Billings, offering low-cost ID tags and microchipping as an additional component of Project Reunite.
YVAS would like to express its immense gratitude to the Mary Alice Fortin Foundation for helping bring this project to fruition.
