Rabies vaccination tags in Tennessee will now be more helpful when a pet goes missing. The state Department of Health has established a website to search the tag number found on a lost dog or cat.
The state regularly gets calls from people who’ve found a lost pet with rabies tags, says Hugh Atkins, the state's director of environmental health.
“We have talked to these people in the past when they call in, and the only mechanism we had was to put them on a scavenger hunt to find the veterinarian,” Atkins says.
The state health department could narrow it down to the county health department. Then the county can tell someone who the vet was that issued the tags. Then that office could look up the owner.
The new state website cuts out the call to the county, but still requires phoning the vet to find the specific pet owner.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Hugh Atkins. We regret the error.
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