New technology brings more lost animals home

More lost animals in Vancouver have been found ever since the BC SPCA launched their innovative online lost and found website in 2012.



According to the data obtained from the Animal Control Inventory on the City of Vancouver's Open Data Catalogue, the percentage of lost animals being found has increased over the past few years.

One main reason that can be attributed to the increase in the percentage of lost animals being found in Vancouver is the launching of the BC SPCA's lost and found website in 2012. The website contains a lost and found database for animals that are in the care of the BC SPCA, as well as other postings from communities across B.C., and provides an outlet for people to look for and post about lost and found animals. This Surrey Leader article outlines some of the key features of the website, such as the public being able to post their own photos and descriptions of lost and found animals directly on the website. It also states that every lost animal that is brought to any BC SPCA shelter is automatically posted on the website, which provides the public with immediate access to lost pets. General manager of community relations for the BC SPCA, Lorie Chortyk, said in the 2012 article, "we believe this exciting new online tool will dramatically increase the number of lost animals who are quickly reunited with their anxious guardians," and the percentages of lost animals being found in the years following the inception of the website prove that she and the BC SPCA were right.

Chortyk also states in the article, "Each year, the BC SPCA rescues more than 13,000 stray and lost animals. Sadly, many of these animals do not have any form of identification linking them to their guardians and we are unable to reunite them with their families." In a recent CBC News article from March of 2016, "4 reasons to license your dog" are highlighted. "Just in case..." is the second reason, as John Gray, assistance manager of animal services for the City of Vancouver, says, "the best incentive for getting a dog licensed is that you get your dog back when your dog's been lost." Registering dogs, cats, or any pet, means that staff will be able to contact the owner if they find a pet that has gone missing.

Similar lost and found websites and apps have been or are being developed ever since the BC SPCA developed their website. Helping Lost Pets is a national map based lost and found registry that helps find lost pets, and does so through their website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. They have multiple accounts for numerous places across both Canada and the United States, such as a Facebook page for lost pets in B.C..

There is a new lost pet app being developed, thanks to four young teenagers from the Lower Mainland. This CBC News article from December of 2015 reports that the new app, called "Find A Lost Pet," will give people an opportunity to help if they happen to come across a lost pet. Co-developer and project leader, 13-year old Stefan Clarinval, said, "I always see these lost pet posters all over the place and I just feel bad that I can't really do much to help them... I figured this is a good way to help families that have lost pets." Before any of these apps and websites came to fruition, posters were how people got information about and tracked down lost pets. Now, people can simply post the same information online, rather than on a post or wall. The app, which is scheduled to be released in a few weeks for beta testing in the Lower Mainland, is a simple but effective database that allows people to post and search missing pets, just like the BC SPCA's website.

The BC SPCA's lost and found website has played a huge role in more lost animals being found in Vancouver, and with more websites and apps being developed, expect more lost animals to be found in the near future.

Tableau scatter plot

Here is an example of a Tableau scatter plot:

Data update 3: let's 'wrap' these puppies (kittens and other animals, too) up

This Datawrapper chart illustrates the central point of my final report.



There are a few questions that I cannot answer with my data, questions such as those surrounding the location of the lost animals. If I wanted to know which locations the most lost animals are found at, from which neighbourhood the most animals go missing, or any other questions involving location, I would not be able to do so. I would have to go in person, either to City Hall or the BC SPCA, and ask for that information, information that could very easily be turned into a dataset. City Hall and the BC SPCA are the two agencies that should have this information, as the dataset was supplied by the City of Vancouver on their website, and the BC SPCA has online pet registries and lost and found websites. A simple FOI or ATI request should be able to get this information. The location information can simply be added to the original dataset I have been using. "Location animal was last seen at" or "location animal was found" could be possible columns. The information could then be added in as longitude and latitude coordinates, and eventually made into a map displaying different location information about lost and found animals in Vancouver.

My first Tableau chart

This is my first Tableau chart:

This is a Fusion Table shape map

Data update 2: innovative website helps find missing animals

Opening lead sentence:

More lost animals in Vancouver have been found and matched ever since the BC SPCA launched their innovative online lost and found website in 2012.

Here is the raw data and a small slice from the data:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Ktg1j9HnnIYk5seGk4RG5heWM/view?usp=sharing

The spreadsheet shows all lost animals in the city of Vancouver since the year 1999, and is still being updated in 2016 (Note that the years 2007-2011 are incomplete). Since those five years are incomplete, I decided to start at 2012, and lo and behold, I was able to find an article that related directly to the year 2012 (I literally spent all week trying to find an article that would add additional context to any aspect of the spreadsheet whatsoever, as well as figure out what to include in the slice, and was actually freaking out that I wouldn't find an article or figure out a slice and would have to change databases, but thankfully it all worked out in the end). The slice contains the number of animals that were lost in 2012 up until mid-February of 2016, and categorizes them into found, lost, and matched columns. Using these numbers, I calculated the percentage of found and matched animals, and each year's percentage was higher than 2012's.    

Here is the original dataset:

http://data.vancouver.ca/datacatalogue/animalInventory.htm

Here is a news story that relates to the data:

http://www.surreyleader.com/community/137101758.html

This article is about the then new online lost and found website the BC SPCA launched in January of 2012. It outlines some of the key features of the website, such as the public being able to post their own photos and descriptions of lost and found animals directly on the website. This article is relevant to my data because ever since the website was launched in 2012, the percentage of lost animals being found and matched has gone up and has not been lower than the 2012 percentage. It is safe to say that the launch of the BC SPCA lost and found website has factored into more lost animals being found and matched over the past few years. 

Interactive Datawrapper chart

Here are some election results: