THERE is nothing more distressing then a beloved family pet or animal going missing.
Almost every day, you will come across a post on social media by some concerned and worried pet owner whose pet, whether it’s a dog, cat, hamster or guinea pig, has gone missing and their whereabouts are unknown.
Katelyn Mannion, a pet and animal lover, has set up a Facebook group called ‘Pets Lost and Found Fermanagh’, along with her friend Caolan, which gives people right across the county a platform to put up a post and share information about their pet which has gone missing.
The Facebook group has a wide-reaching audience, with 7,599 people following the page, and assistant manager Katelyn feels it is very beneficial in helping people find their missing animals.
“The intentions of the page were to reunite any lost and found pets. Seeing the power of social media and seeing how many people are on Facebook, we believed that it was the perfect place for the page to go. I’ve grown up around animal rescues, volunteering with rescues and animals in general so I wanted to help.”
Since Christmas, the amount of appeals for lost pets has increased massively and Katelyn feels that the saying is definitely true, a ‘pet just isn’t for Christmas!’
“There is definitely an increase of lost and found pets in the months after Christmas. We also find ourselves sharing a lot more animals available for adoption from local animal rescues on the page as they have such an increase of animals coming in after Christmas.
“We notice that we are at our busiest during Halloween, New Years and the months after Christmas.”
When a person is reunited with their beloved animal, it has a profound heart-warming effect and Katelyn hopes that the Facebook group will continue to grow and people will get behind their campaign.
“I’m very happy to help people when they need help like this and so are the other admins. We love animals and we know if our own [pet] went missing, we would appreciate any help we could get.
“We love to see pets being reunited. Some cases that have been resolved have made my week.
“Putting an appeal up and helping someone can really make a difference for people, especially when a pet isn’t microchipped.”
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