By Express News Service Standing at the Cubbon Dog park a few Sundays ago, a diffident young man waits to say thank you to the surprised Volunteers (aka The inimitable Knights of Cubbon Bark!) and me. Apparently last week his reluctant father was given one of our little plastic dog tags – you know the type which you use for keychain as well ? You flip it open to write the dog’s name and parent’s mobile number on it and attach it to the dogs collar. Voila, you have a Dog Identity Tag. The metal ID tags with proper engraving can and must be bought, but meanwhile this is a cheap, temporary option that works ! So little Labrador, Candy must have slipped out of an open gate which was noticed only at about 6am, followed by frantic search & calls – the mother even ran to the temple after an hour of futile search to pray for Candy’s safe return. Three hours later, a kind man 4km away who saw this scared dog and let her in to his compound where she remained shivering, calls them. Candy allowed him close enough to read the tag with the name and the number and he promptly called …and the sheer relief of the family! What would have happened otherwise ? Fostered, attacked, gone to a breeder, hit by a car? The father was reluctant to take the free tag and I told him it’s a simple precaution he should take, as dogs can get lost. She did, three days later! The tragedy of a lost dog to a family is unbearable – and we would hate it to happen. At The CJ Memorial Trust & The Sunday Cubbon Dog park, we have given away over 10,000 free plastic tags to park visitors, boarders, shelters, clinics, and even pet shops. It cost us very little, but it could save a dog and a family. The campaign that we initiated was motivated after seeing the number of lost dog posts on social media – #DogTagged NOT #DogGone #NoMoreLostDogs. And thanks to this hundreds of parents have become more conscious of this safety measure. ‘It never happens to me’ , ‘My dog is never out alone …’ We hear this all the time. We are very careful, he never leaves the house, everybody knows him etc. But just in case it happens, don’t you want to be safe ? ‘My dog will find his way back’ Yeah, right. So a dog is found on MG Road and a samaritan rescuer searches for the owner and finally takes him home to Whitefield, where he can try and find the pet’s parents. Meanwhile, the parent has been searching on MG Road in concentric circles – do you think the dog will ever find his way back? And all it takes is a simple phone call to the parents to say: Hey, guess what , we found your dog. The cost of losing a pet is disproportionate to the tiny effort of ensuring a id tag with his name and your number on a collar. Yes, parents can be caught off guard - they forgot the tag , it has been chewed up, or it’s on the other collar etc. Wake up – this is just self-preservation. So many people’s time, worry and energy is spent looking for these lost dogs which could have been easily prevented by a simple tag. We know you don’t want to be that bereft pet parent, or your dog to be that poor fellow that never comes back home. Keep your dog safe with a name tag ..it costs a little but it would save his life. Or, come to us at the dog park and we will give you a little plastic one for free. You see, we value your dog.

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