Lost pet? RivCo uses facial recognition technology to reunite animals and owners

The Riverside County Department of Animal Services is using a new tool to help reunite pets with their owners.

This partnership came right on time with the Fourth of July holiday season. This is a time animal control finds more pets lost in the streets because of fireworks noises.

It's called Petco Love Lost which is a national database that helps locate pets. This is done using facial recognition technology that pairs photos of lost pets and found pets through its website.

To get your pet onto the database is as simple as registering your pet, and uploading a photo and information about them.

From there if your pet is ever lost, and someone uploads a photo onto the same website, they can easily find the owner.

Right now with shelters filling up, animal services believe this would help with the issue.

“We think that it’s going to help by making sure that instead of pets coming into the shelter, we can make that connection between people who are finding the pets and the people who lost their pets," explained Kerri Mabee, Riverside County Department of Animal Services' public information officer.

The department hopes people will start to use this tool as a community initiative to help pets make it back home.