Study Suggests Lost Dogs Found More Often Than Lost Cats
Ohio State University researchers discovered that 71% of lost dogs are found, compared with 53% of lost cats, according to this study of one Ohio city. This difference between dogs and cats is likely due to Ohio animal control laws, which requires that dogs be licensed.
In this study, more than one-third of the recovered dogs were found by a call or visit to an animal shelter, and more than one in four dogs was found because of an ID tag or license found on the dog. Only 41% of the lost dogs in the study wore a license at the time of disappearance, while 48% had an identification tag or microchip.
Cat owners are not required to identify their pets, and only 19% of cats had a tag or microchip at the time they were lost, according to this study.