August 8, 2025 • 36 mins
Learn more about: Petco Love
What happens in those terrifying moments when your beloved pet vanishes? For millions of pet owners each year, this nightmare becomes a reality. But technology is changing the game in remarkable ways.
Abbie Moore, COO of Petco Love, takes us behind the scenes of their groundbreaking lost pet reunification platform that's already brought 120,000 animals home. This isn't the typical post-a-flyer approach, it's sophisticated AI that examines 512 data points in each pet photo, identifying unique markers the human eye might miss. 🐶
According to experts, one in three pets will go missing during their lifetime, with approximately 10 million animals disappearing annually. Once in shelters, return-to-owner rates can be as low as 6%. These realities drove Petco Love to create a universal database that automatically imports listings from 3,200 animal shelters nationwide, plus community platforms like Nextdoor and Neighbors by Ring.
Moore shares heartwarming stories that showcase the technology's power, including a Manhattan dog who traveled 10 miles, was hit by a car, crossed state lines, and made it home within 14 hours thanks to the platform. Even more remarkable? The entire service is completely free, with no premium features or subscription tiers. 🤳
"Unlike in any other category, competition harms everybody in this space," Moore explains, highlighting how fragmented lost pet systems historically prevented reunions.
Whether you're a pet parent or simply someone who cares about animals, this episode offers actionable insights into protecting your furry family members. Register your pet at PetcoLoveLost.org today and become part of the community helping lost pets find their way home. 🏡🐱
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steven Ruffing (00:01):
Welcome to the Four Worlds podcast from
Tomorrow's World.
Today, we're diving into thelatest in tech, science and
sustainability, from nature'smysteries in the world of
inspiration to the hands-oncrafts of creation, the bold
breakthroughs of innovation andthe scaled-up wonders of
production.
This is your ticket to thestories shaping tomorrow, and
(00:24):
welcome back everyone.
Today, we are joined by AbbyMoore, the COO of the animal
welfare charity Petco Love, abby.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Abbie Moore (00:34):
Thanks so much for having me.
It's such a pleasure to be here.
Steven Ruffing (00:37):
No, it's a pleasure having you on.
This is another one that we'reexcited for.
Now, before we jump into thingsfor the listeners that may have
never heard of Petco Love, justtake this time.
Tell us a little bit about thecharity and how it helps animals
every day.
Abbie Moore (00:50):
Yes, petco Love is the nonprofit arm of Petco and
we help animals.
We help companion animals in avariety of different ways.
We have about 4,000 animalwelfare organizations that are
partners of ours and over theyears we have invested nearly
$421 million in those animalwelfare organizations and their
(01:15):
life-saving work.
But we also have our ownprograms that we do to really
make even more of a difference.
So we've helped to save almost7 million pets via adoption
different adoption programs.
We have distributed almostthree and a half million doses
of free vaccines, mostly topeople who really really need
(01:37):
that help, and in many casestheir pets have never been to a
veterinarian.
And the thing that I'm here toreally talk about is how we help
animals via a piece oftechnology called Petco Love
Lost that uses image recognition, ai technology to reunite lost
pets.
Steven Ruffing (01:56):
And not to put all the great things that you do
to the side, because that's whyI wanted to give you that
opportunity to talk about thoseother things.
But, yes, that piece oftechnology that reunites the
owners with Lost Pets isdefinitely why we had you on,
but we didn't want to discreditall the other great things that
you did as well, or do, I shouldsay.
Abbie Moore (02:16):
Thank you.
Yes, we you know, for arelatively small organization,
we really have our hands on alot of pies and help in a lot of
different ways and there's somany incredibly brilliant people
working on the team and we'reso lucky because our goals
really are just to help animals.
We have a number of differentKPIs that we use to measure our
(02:39):
work, but at the end of the day,the bottom line for us is just
how many animals we can help andhow many people we can help and
how many people we can help.
Steven Ruffing (02:45):
And I do believe this is something that a lot of
people can relate to and careabout, because animals, when it
comes down to it, so vulnerableand helping them is something I
think a lot of people can uniteon.
So we'll jump right into thatLove Lost program.
Tell me all about how thattechnology, how it works,
specifically that facialrecognition that helps reunite
(03:08):
lost pets with their owners.
Abbie Moore (03:10):
Okay, you're going to have to stop me if I am
rambling on, because this is oneof my favorite favorite
subjects, so let me start alittle bit with the problem that
we're trying to solve.
So you hear about lost andfound pets and you know, first
of all, anytime somebody losestheir beloved animal, that makes
a huge impact on them and theirlife.
(03:31):
But there's also this bigsystemic aspect of the problem.
So about 50 to 60% of pets thatare entering animal shelters
are classified as quote unquotestray, which often just means
they're lost right, and oncethey get into the shelter they
only have a.
You know, they have a prettysmall chance of being returned
(03:54):
home.
You know our return to ownerrates, which is one of our KPIs
RTO return to owner for a really, really great shelter it's
probably around 30%, but we seeit as low as 6%.
So we're also in a time inanimal welfare where, for the
first time in decades,euthanasia is trending upward
(04:15):
instead of trending downward.
And so if we can make a dent inthat problem by A preventing
lost pets from coming into theshelter at all, by reuniting
them in the field or, breuniting them faster if they do
get into the shelter, we canmake a huge impact on
life-saving.
So that's really what inspiresus and inspired Petco Love to
(04:40):
you know first acquire thispiece of technology called
Finding Rover and then build itinto what it is today Petco Love
Lost.
As far as how it works, Imentioned that there's this
image recognition technology,and we can go into that a little
bit later in a little bit moredetail, but the thing that's
really cool about that is thatit opens the door for us to
(05:02):
reunite pets in a different way.
One of the major problems thatpeople have when they've lost a
pet is what do they do?
Where do they go?
There's so many options,there's so many places for
people to post lost and foundpets, and so it was our goal to
take all of those differentsources of data and combine them
into one database and then usethat image recognition
(05:24):
technology to compare photosthat have been posted on a
number of different platforms sothat we can reunite.
You know, we can match the lostpet listings with the found pet
listings, and so we partnerwith about 3,200 animal shelters
, so all of their lost pets arecoming into the system
automatically.
All of their lost pets arecoming into the system
automatically, and we havepartnered with Nextdoor and
(05:47):
Neighbors by Ring, and all oftheir pets are coming into the
database as well and of coursepeople report directly into our
system.
So that's really kind of anoverview of how it works.
Steven Ruffing (06:02):
Now, that's incredible.
Now, how do these owners accessall of that?
Where can they go to find?
Are they going to the shelters,or is it just a lot of people
kind of corresponding with eachother?
Is there a lot of differentavenues that maybe the owners
can access?
Abbie Moore (06:12):
Yes.
So that's a great question.
Our goal is sort of whereveryour lost and found pet journey
begins, that somehow you'remaking it into our system so
that we can use our technologyto help you make a reunion.
So if you go to the shelter andsay, hey, I've lost or found a
pet, in many cases what they'lldo is tell you to report that
(06:36):
pet directly into Petco LiveLost.
You know, as I mentioned, wepartner with a lot of animal
shelters and in addition totheir own pets the pets that are
in their care coming into thesystem, they're also talking to
members of their community whoare reaching out to them for
help and even if that petdoesn't come into the shelter,
they're recommending that thatperson report the pet into Petco
Love Lost.
(06:56):
So that's one avenue.
If somebody posts their lost peton Nextdoor, let's say or let
me use Neighbors by Ring, whichis a little bit different
example If they had a lost orfound pet there, they're given
an option to automatically havethat pet also appear in our
system.
If you are posting on Nextdoorand someone's searching on Petco
(07:20):
Love Lost, we are automaticallybringing all of those next door
pets into our database as well.
So it's just sort of a.
It's a very complex process tomanage all of this, all these
different data sources, but it'sso important that all lost pets
and all found pets are in onesingle database because you know
(07:41):
, unlike in any other category,competition harms everybody in
this space.
If you lose your pet, stephen,and you post that pet on
Nextdoor and I find your pet andI post on Petco Love Lost, or
post on Neighbors by Ring, andwe don't have this universal
database, we're not going tomake that reunion happen.
Steven Ruffing (08:02):
Yeah, it'll just be a lot of going back and
forth, a lot of different goingthrough one door, going out a
different door.
So, when you're thinking aboutthis technology, why did you
choose that facial recognition?
Was it one of the easier waysto make sure that all of these
pets get into the database?
I'm sure that might be the case.
Abbie Moore (08:22):
Yes, that is definitely part of the reason I
mean.
First of all, it's just a veryprecise way of searching.
It also removes, in the case ofanimal shelters, some of the
manual labor involved.
You know, prior to Petco, loveLoss and even sometimes now,
animal shelters have people ontheir staff who will manually
(08:43):
comb through listings on socialmedia or, you know, will take
the pets in their care andreally try manually to find
listings or even look at flyersthat are posted in their
neighborhood.
That's not a, you know, it'snot the best way to use these
people's time, and so, by usingthis AI technology, it removes
(09:04):
that sort of manual labor andalso removes human error from
the equation.
There are so many times when wemake a reunion happen and we'll
look at the lost pet photo andthe found pet photo and, with
the naked eye, they don't looklike the same animal.
But you know, with you know,our, our we just launched a
(09:27):
totally refactored machinelearning and it uses 512
different data points, you know,to compare photos and it can
see things that we don't see,and so that's.
That's another thing, but thebut you know, what you mentioned
is also really important.
That's another thing, but whatyou mentioned is also really
important.
We need to suck in all of thesephotos, all of these different
(09:49):
data sources and without anyother information, we can make
that reunion happen.
Steven Ruffing (10:02):
And that's a really great point.
Thinking about all of theanimals in, let's just say, the
United States, you're bound tohave dogs or cats that look like
each other.
Cats specifically, I mean, youhave some orange tabbies that I
couldn't tell the differencebetween 10 of them.
Does this AI technology?
Is there certain aspects of thepet's face that it really
focuses in on?
Like you said, there's thingsthat it can see, that the human
(10:23):
eye can't see.
Abbie Moore (10:24):
Yes, so it goes beyond facial recognition.
It's the full image and, as Imentioned, it's 512 different
data points, differentcombinations of data points.
But, yeah, it can focus in onthings like eye color, on the
shape of ears, on the distancebetween different features on
the face on, you know, differentfeatures on the face, on body
(10:46):
markings, I mean differentmarkings in the fur, tail size.
You know all kinds of thingsthat we don't see.
And, in addition, we can usemultiple photos to create a
composite of an animal.
So if the first photo thatsomeone uploads doesn't show a
marking on the body but thesecond photo does, our system
(11:09):
will combine everything that weknow into one sort of virtual
image.
Steven Ruffing (11:14):
It is really incredible what technology can
do Just throwing all of thosephotos and images together.
It really is amazing whattechnology, specifically AI, is
capable of.
Abbie Moore (11:25):
It really is, and you know you mentioned all the
different, all the householdsthat have pets.
I mean this could illustratethe scope of what we're talking
about.
You know it's about 89 millionhouseholds own a pet and our
data shows us that one in threepets will go missing during the
course of their life.
(11:46):
And so you know, some estimatesare about 10 million animals
going missing every year.
That's a lot of opportunity tohelp a pet when in reality these
are animals.
They have a mind of their own,they have instincts, they like
to roam, things happen, and sowe just really want to take all
(12:13):
of that weird emotion out of itand just help solve the problem.
Steven Ruffing (12:17):
Yeah, you really don't know what will happen.
Just a quick story.
One of our chihuahuas Hershey.
And just a quick story, my oneof our chihuahuas Hershey.
Before we had adopted them,before we rescued them, we found
out a story about her that sheroamed for a year, just got out,
roamed for a year and theneventually her microchip brought
her back.
Would have been great to havethat technology.
Abbie Moore (12:40):
Yeah, yeah, I mean talking, you know, speaking of
microchips.
Microchips are incredible andyou know we always like to say
if every pet had a microchip andevery microchip was up to date,
had up to date contactinformation in the system and
was registered to begin with,and every person who found a pet
(13:01):
knew how to take that pet toget that microchip scanned, we
might not need to exist, youknow, like problem solved, but
there's just a huge problem withgetting those microchips
registered.
For some reason, no matter whatwe do to encourage people to
register that microchip, they'renot doing it or if they're
moving, they're not updatingthat information.
(13:23):
Right, but there's, we canstill make a reunion happen
based on microchip number, evenif that microchip has never
actually been registered in anysystem.
And we did that recently.
There was an incredible story ofa guy in Manhattan who and this
actually made the news it wasall over the place, so you may
have heard this story, but thisguy, michael, and his dog,
(13:45):
millie.
She was on a walk in the EastVillage with a friend of his.
She slipped her I'm talkingabout the East Village in
Manhattan slipped her collarSomehow.
She ran 10 miles to Harlemwhere she was hit by a car.
Steven Ruffing (13:59):
Oh geez.
Abbie Moore (14:04):
Picked up by a good Samaritan who stopped traffic
to get her, and then that persontook Millie across state lines
to Paramus New Jersey, took herto a veterinary office to have
her seen for her injuries andthe veterinarian uploaded her to
Petco Love Lost.
Now, in the meantime, her owneris uploading her to Petco Love
Lost and we have a field formicrochip and he realizes oh my
(14:27):
gosh, I've never actuallyregistered the microchip, but I
have the microchip number on theadoption paperwork and so he
added it in.
The veterinarian who's seeingMillie scans her, finds the
microchip number, adds that toPetco Live Lost.
And Millie was home 14 hoursafter going missing and crossing
state lines.
Steven Ruffing (14:44):
That is incredible.
So if anybody could takesomething away from this podcast
.
If you have pets and haven'tregistered your microchip, I
think that's a pretty darn goodstory to to encourage them.
Abbie Moore (14:55):
Yes, I mean you just can't.
You can't take enoughprecautions when you're talking
about someone in your family whomeans so much to you and you
know, when you look at the data,it is likely that your pet will
go missing at some point duringtheir lifetime.
Steven Ruffing (15:09):
Yeah, absolutely , and that's just a great story
to kind of emphasize the, let'ssay, urgency and necessity.
Are there any other storiesthat may come to mind, just from
your personal experience withyour time at Petco Love that
kind of again emphasize thenecessity?
Abbie Moore (15:25):
Yes, before I jump into that, let me just say that
people can preemptively registeron Petco Love Loss before their
pet ever goes missing, which isgreat, because when you're in a
panic and your pet is missing,locating things like the best
photos or the microchip numberor anything that they want to
add in is.
You know, it's kind of onerouswhen you're when you're panicked
(15:48):
.
But if you already have that,you know that profile set up.
All you have to do is click onebutton and activate it.
But another story is recently.
This is there's a woman who wason vacation in Watsonville,
california, northern California,and her dog trying to remember
the story.
A door was open, the dog bolted.
(16:08):
Dog trying to remember thestory.
A door was open, the dog boltedand she uploaded this.
The dog to petco love lost,stayed out of town longer than
she was supposed to search fordays and days and days, was
absolutely heartbroken, finallywent home to southern california
, kept checking every single dayon petco love lost.
Five months later we sent heran alert that her dog was in the
(16:28):
santa cruz county animalshelter and they were reunited
five months later.
So you know, most of the timethese reunions are happening,
like you know, within 24 hours.
But it does show you that notto give up hope that there's a.
There's a journey that someanimals take, that it takes them
a while to get into any system,but we can still make that
reunion happen.
Steven Ruffing (16:49):
Yeah, that's a great takeaway with this
technology.
It's something that just letsyou hold on to that hope just a
little bit longer, becausesometimes not every case is the
same.
Sometimes it will take fivemonths.
That's a really great point.
I appreciate that story.
I really hope this kind ofencourages a lot of people and
opens up their eyes to what youdo and the technology and how
(17:09):
you use it.
So that that is great.
Abbie Moore (17:11):
And, by the way, everything we do is totally free
.
You know, there is not even away for you to spend money in
the system, unless you want tomake a donation to support our
nonprofit, of course.
But we want to make sure that,no matter who you are or what
means you have or don't have,that you are able to find your
lost pet and that we're offeringthe same level of service that
(17:33):
we.
You know we don't have anypremium features.
Everybody has access to thesame level of service for zero
dollars.
Steven Ruffing (17:40):
That is incredible.
Again, I'm sure a lot ofpeople's ears have perked up
after that because that isreally great, and that's just
goes to show the importance ofcharities, and especially when
it comes to animals.
Abbie Moore (17:52):
Yes, and we're very fortunate because of our
relationship with Petco.
You know, about 90 percent ofour operating budget comes from
those little donations thatpeople make when they're
checking out at their localPetco store and because of that
we're able to just concentrateon doing good work.
We don't have to constantly bethinking of ways to monetize our
(18:16):
systems.
Steven Ruffing (18:17):
We can just do what's right for animals and
people.
Another great point, really.
Now let's talk about thecreation of Petco Love Lost and
its platform.
How did your team the teamsmaybe before you how did they go
about in the early stages,building that Love Lost platform
?
Abbie Moore (18:32):
Yeah.
So let me preface this bysaying I am not an engineer, but
I will tell you all about thefunding.
So, as I mentioned, the firstiteration of what became Petco
Love Lost was something calledFinding Rover and they were just
brilliant in their foresight.
And they were just brilliant intheir foresight.
You know, this was long beforepeople were really talking about
AI, long before generative AIwas part of our daily vocabulary
(18:55):
, and they realized that therewas this opportunity Now that
technology became quite outdated.
You know, early challenges, ofcourse, with any machine
learning is finding enough datato train the system on.
You know, now it's a lot easierfor us.
We have about 10 million photospassing through our system
(19:16):
annually and it helps us toreally constantly be training
the system to be smarter andmore independent and to
recognize different aspects andto weight different aspects of a
pet's image differently andcorrectly.
But early on, where do you getmillions of photos to train on?
(19:38):
So that was a challenge andalso back then it was very
manual entering in the photo andthen tagging different parts of
it and even manually creatingan outline of a photo of a pet.
Luckily we don't have to dothat anymore because systems are
so much smarter and willcontinue to get smarter.
(19:59):
You know, unlike a microchip,this system is not like a
one-to-one match.
It's not like you upload yourphoto.
We give you one result this isdefinitely your pet.
We're going to result this isdefinitely your pet.
We're going to give you a pageof search results ordered by
what we think is, you know, mostlikely your pet.
(20:19):
We assign different, you knowscore ups and we, you know,
feature the highest score at thetop.
But eventually, I hope that itwill be really accurate.
Maybe it's like hey, here aretwo pets, one of these we think
is yours and that's it.
Steven Ruffing (20:29):
The beauty of it is the technology can only get
smarter from here.
Right now, as we're talking,it's the smartest that it will
ever be, or it's the smartestquote yeah, it has ever been,
and so that is the beauty of itand and just thinking about that
and it's able to learn, it'sable to grow and hopefully one
(20:49):
day those search results will befirst result.
It's yours, and maybe that'swhat you might be looking
towards in the future.
Abbie Moore (20:58):
That is definitely a goal.
You know, I think of a world inwhich we know your pet went
missing before you do.
You know, maybe you're at workand your pet goes out the door
and your pet gets entered intothe system and we know that you
live at X address and that youhave this pet and we're able to
(21:20):
really make a match and contactyou proactively.
Today you need to manuallyactivate your listing, but why
see a time before too long wherewe'll really have such a vast
database of people who haveproactively added their pets to
the system before their pet evergoes missing?
That will really be able toreach out proactively and help
(21:41):
your pet come home reallyquickly.
Steven Ruffing (21:43):
No, that's great .
And when we talk about theorigins, you said Finding Rover,
acquiring them was a huge partof getting this off the ground.
Are there any other keypartnerships that really get
Petco Love to where it is today?
Abbie Moore (21:57):
Yes, animal shelters, which are a huge
source of pet data.
They tend to manage theiroperations using one of several
different shelter managementsoftware programs.
So when pets come in they'reonboarded into that system and
these systems manage the petthrough the sort of life cycle
of their time in the shelter.
We have partnerships with eachof those shelter management
(22:20):
software systems so that thosesystems are automatically
shipping those pets into oursystem, managing them, removing
them when they're no longer inthe system.
That was enormous, I mean.
It's a huge effort but also hasa ton of payoff.
And now you know I mentionedthat we also have this sort of
B2B2C part of our strategy wherewe're also using those
(22:44):
relationships to reach membersof the public.
And so you know, when we lookat any kind of multi-sided
platform really depends onhaving enough you know, enough
users on both sides of theplatform.
For us it's also we need tomake sure that and I digress,
but that we have, when we lookat lost pets versus found pets,
(23:04):
that that's kind of equal.
And even geographically, youknow, if I'm looking in Los
Angeles or Omaha, nebraska, Ineed to make sure that I have an
equal number of lost and foundpets in those specific areas,
and so you know we look at a lotof different aspects to make
sure that we're doing the bestjob.
Steven Ruffing (23:22):
Yeah, absolutely .
And speaking of that, youanswered a lot of the questions
that I have prepared, so I justwould appreciate that.
And that takes me to kind of mynext point about just the
future of this innovation.
What other pieces of technology?
Of course we talked about themicrochip technology.
Are there any other forms oftechnology that you'd like to
(23:42):
tap into to kind of enhance thesystem?
Abbie Moore (23:45):
Yeah, I mean I think this is probably a ways
off in the future because youknow there's so much work to be
done in what we're doing and toperfect what we're doing.
But you know, I'm personallyexcited about biometrics and
using more things like, you know, nose print, technologyco, love
Lost and other systems likethat.
(24:06):
It really does enlist the helpof the community and bring them
in as a partner, because animalshelters are, you know, they're
(24:27):
filled with people who are justdoing great work every day and
they care so much, but the onusshould not be on them.
You know, to solve everyproblem, the community needs to
step up and be a part of thesolution, and so that's really
what we're trying to do is takesome of that pressure off of the
animal shelters and reallydemocratize the ability to
(24:49):
reunite lost pets.
Steven Ruffing (24:51):
You're absolutely right, because a lot
of those employees arevolunteers at those shelters and
every corner you look, thoseshelters are often overpopulated
.
It's really sad to see, and Ithink that's something that
Petco Love can really help isalleviating that pressure, just
like you said, from thoseshelters.
Abbie Moore (25:09):
Yes, yeah, and you know.
To dive a little bit morespecifically into what's
happening currently with animalshelters is you know we're still
seeing adoptions happen andwe're not seeing a huge increase
in animals coming into theshelter, which I know there's a
lot of reporting out there thattells a different story.
But what we are seeing is thelength of stay of animals in
(25:31):
shelters going up.
It's taking longer to get themout the door and because of that
there's an accumulation of pets.
That happens in the shelter andthat's what's causing this
overpopulation and bringing usto a time when perfectly healthy
, friendly, adoptable pets areat risk because there's just no
(25:52):
space.
Steven Ruffing (25:53):
Right, and we can go on and on about that and
addressing that issue, but justwith hopes of Petco Love, you
know, definitely one dayalleviating that.
And then my next question maybe a little difficult for you,
so I just want to prepare.
You gave me the percentages ofthe return to owners.
The RTO, I believe, is what youcalled it.
(26:13):
Roughly, how many pets hasPetco Love helped reunite with
their owners?
Abbie Moore (26:19):
Okay, this is a great question.
Okay, good, let me preface.
Well, let me say it's 120,000that we know of.
I mean, that's just from thelast couple of years and we're
kind of on this hockey stickpart of our growth where, you
know, it took us a while to getoff the ground and rebuilding
the technology and now it'sreally taking off and rebuilding
(26:42):
the technology, and now it'sreally taking off.
I say that we know of becauseit's often difficult to get
people to follow up and tell uswhat happened, and so we do our
best to follow up and ask themyou know, were you reunited with
your pet?
If so, did Petco Love Lost?
You know, were we instrumentalin making that reunion happen?
And that's where we're hearingfrom individuals.
120,000 individuals have toldus that, yes, their reunion
happened.
And that's where we're hearingfrom individuals.
120,000 individuals have toldus that, yes, that reunion
(27:02):
happened.
And, yes, it was Petco LoveLost that made it happen.
Steven Ruffing (27:05):
That is absolutely incredible and we'd
love to see that number go up.
And with hopes, with hopes,that number is more than what it
is, and you'd have to assumethat it is.
Abbie Moore (27:16):
Yeah, I mean we think it's significantly higher.
But we want to be very honestabout reporting our progress and
we want to be honest withourselves, because I think the
most dangerous thing that youcan do, if you're in any area of
innovation that is reallyimpact driven, is to tell
yourself a story that things arebetter than they are.
There's always room for lots ofimprovement.
(27:40):
There's room for us to innovatemore.
There's room for us certainlyto spread the word more and to
get more people aware of PetcoLove Lost and when they see
people on social media postingabout their lost pet, to
recommend that they go andcreate a free account on Petco
Love Lost and post their pet.
But 120,000 is still somethingthat we're very proud of.
Steven Ruffing (28:01):
And would you encourage, let's say, people
that aren't pet owners to alsomaybe register or download the
app or what have you, just tokind of keep an eye out?
Is that something that PetcoLove does?
Abbie Moore (28:14):
I mean that's a great thing to do.
I don't think I've ever beenasked that.
That's a great question.
Yeah, there are people who,whether they have a pet or not,
we call them super users.
They're in the system all thetime.
They are looking on their localsocial media, they are taking
responsibility for sort of being.
(28:35):
I remember block parents Likeyou might be too young, when I
was a kid.
I remember block parents Like Iyou might be too young when I
was a kid we had block parents.
If you were in trouble you knewwhat house to go to for help.
So there are people who havesort of kind of assigned
themselves that role of beingthe guardian of pets in their
community and we actually have aspecial page that people like
that can go to.
If you go to our homepage atpetcolovelostorg and you scroll
(28:58):
down, you can click on see allpets and you don't have to
upload a photo, you can justsearch.
We also have a really cool mapview that we just launched that
shows where pets were lost andfound in a community and allows
people to post sightings as well.
So even if they don't have thelost pet in their care, but they
saw a pet, they can help, bepart of the solution and
(29:20):
certainly, even if you don'thave a pet, you can still find a
pet in the street at any giventime and we're here to help
because we know that's a verystressful situation.
You don't know what to do Maybeyou're on your way to work and
to stop and try to help.
We really appreciate.
Steven Ruffing (29:39):
No, that is awesome because I can't imagine
how many times you know just me,for example like I've seen dogs
on the side of the road whereyou're kind of unable to stop
your car get out and help One wedid stop and it was an
aggressive dog.
That seemed like it was, youknow, just scared.
That seemed like it was, youknow, just scared.
(30:00):
You know that happens, I'm sure, to a lot of people.
So, having this outlet,something to kind of let a
community know, without havingto really put the dog, pet, cat,
whatever at risk, yep.
Abbie Moore (30:11):
Very good point.
Steven Ruffing (30:12):
Now we are talking about people joining in
animal shelters, gettinginvolved with that technology.
What does that onboardingprocess kind of look like?
Or is it just so simple thatthey just go right on to the
website and they're in?
Abbie Moore (30:26):
It is very simple.
We have a team, a small team ofpeople who do outreach to
animal shelters and help themget onboarded into the system.
It's a very simple process.
We just, you know, we want toremove as much friction as we
can and, like I said, I knowanimal shelters are just
constantly busy trying to saveas many lives as possible and
(30:49):
help as many community membersas possible.
So if we can take this work offof their plate and make it easy
for them to sign up and connectthat animal shelter software
that I mentioned so that theirlistings are automatically
uploaded and maintained, thatreally is our goal.
Steven Ruffing (31:06):
Absolutely, and I could sit here and talk about
the technology behind it, but aswe wrap things up, I really
would love to hear maybe apowerful story you personally
have heard with a family beingreunited with their pet and some
of the feedback that you've gotfrom pet parents or pet owners
that have used the platform.
Abbie Moore (31:25):
Yes, I actually have a piece of feedback right
in front of me that just came in.
We do a lot of, you know, we doa lot of qualitative research.
We talk to people every weekwho have lost or are down paths,
whether they're successful ornot in reuniting them.
We did an interview with an 85year old woman who was reunited
(31:46):
with her cat and she sent anemail after the interview and
I'm looking at it and she said Ithought about it after the
interview was over but I wish Ihad said I'm 85 years old and if
I can do it, anybody can do it.
It's very user-friendly andthat was so like just music to
our ears that we've createdsomething that no matter how
(32:08):
savvy you are I mean regardlessof how intricate and
sophisticated the technologyunderlying the system is that
anybody can come and use it andeasily get into the system and
figure out how to reunite withtheir pet.
So that's very meaningful.
But clearly anybody who's everloved a pet and especially if
(32:28):
you've lost one you know howabsolutely terrifying it is.
And so we hear a lot offeedback from people who are
just incredibly grateful that wewere there to help them,
whether we helped or not.
We hear from people that weweren't able to help, who still
appreciated what we were able todo for them and help them calm
down and give them some hope inthe moment.
So there's that.
(32:49):
I will end with the story of how, the story that's behind the
acquisition of Finding Rover.
Our chief financial officer,caroline incredible, brilliant
person.
We had some involvement withFinding Rover, we were partnered
with them and we knew that theyhad some interest in being
(33:11):
acquired.
Right at that moment Caroline'stwo beloved little dogs escaped
her home and she was franticand on a whim.
She remembered, you know,finding Rover and that we were
partnered with them and sheadded her pets and got a match.
I mean like miraculously, got amatch that her pets were in a
(33:32):
shelter.
She called that shelter, thatshelter said her pets weren't
there, and so she was able tocall the, to go to the shelter
and say I know my pets are herebecause I see like there's a
match and I see the pets are inyour system and she was able to
get her pets back.
And that really was what sortof sparked the.
We need to become thecaretakers of this piece of
(33:54):
technology as the nonprofit inthe field.
We need to make sure thateverybody, like Caroline, is
able to reclaim their pets.
Steven Ruffing (34:02):
That is incredible.
That is a great story and Iwish I would have asked about
that earlier, but I will saythat is a great kind of point to
end on, really the footnote ofthis interview.
That's incredible.
Abbie Moore (34:14):
Yeah, it's something that we talk about all
the time as our origin story.
Yeah, it's something that wetalk about all the time as our
origin story.
And you know, you just neverknow how valuable something like
that is until it happens to youand you're that frantic pet
parent.
Steven Ruffing (34:28):
Yeah, absolutely .
But the one thing I do want toend on just feel free to tell
everyone where they could findyou, how they could follow and
how they can sign up for PetcoLove.
Abbie Moore (34:37):
Yes, you can find us at PetcoLoveLostorg and you
can create a preemptiveregistration.
It's super, super easy.
It's just the bare minimumamount of information that we
need from you.
We're very protective ofpeople's personal information.
Also, we don't sell it.
We don't share it with anybody.
Very protective of privacy.
(34:58):
Upload a photo and just makesure that you are prepared If
anything happens.
You can just click your onebutton and activate your listing
and certainly, if you lose oryou find a pet, we're here to
help at any time, 24 hours a day, free of charge
PetcoLoveLossorg.
Steven Ruffing (35:17):
And, of course, there's a lot of things that we
did not get to.
So take that time and reallyexplore all of the things that
Petco Love does that we didn'thave a chance to get to today.
All right, abby, thank you somuch.
That's all the time we have.
We just want to thank you somuch for joining us today.
We really appreciate it.
This was a lot of fun.
Abbie Moore (35:34):
Thanks for having me this was a fantastic
conversation and thanks forasking so many great questions.
Steven Ruffing (35:39):
We appreciate it .
We appreciate it, of course.
All right, everyone.
That's all the time we have.
We'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the four worlds
podcast.
Until next time, you can catchup on the latest innovations
shaping our world attomorrowsworldtodaycom.
Follow us on Facebook andInstagram, and be sure to
(36:00):
subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Welcome to the Four Worlds podcast from
Tomorrow's World.
Today, we're diving into thelatest in tech, science and
sustainability, from nature'smysteries in the world of
inspiration to the hands-oncrafts of creation, the bold
breakthroughs of innovation andthe scaled-up wonders of
production.
This is your ticket to thestories shaping tomorrow, and
(00:24):
welcome back everyone.
Today, we are joined by AbbyMoore, the COO of the animal
welfare charity Petco Love, abby.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Abbie Moore (00:34):
Thanks so much for having me.
It's such a pleasure to be here.
Steven Ruffing (00:37):
No, it's a pleasure having you on.
This is another one that we'reexcited for.
Now, before we jump into thingsfor the listeners that may have
never heard of Petco Love, justtake this time.
Tell us a little bit about thecharity and how it helps animals
every day.
Abbie Moore (00:50):
Yes, petco Love is the nonprofit arm of Petco and
we help animals.
We help companion animals in avariety of different ways.
We have about 4,000 animalwelfare organizations that are
partners of ours and over theyears we have invested nearly
$421 million in those animalwelfare organizations and their
(01:15):
life-saving work.
But we also have our ownprograms that we do to really
make even more of a difference.
So we've helped to save almost7 million pets via adoption
different adoption programs.
We have distributed almostthree and a half million doses
of free vaccines, mostly topeople who really really need
(01:37):
that help, and in many casestheir pets have never been to a
veterinarian.
And the thing that I'm here toreally talk about is how we help
animals via a piece oftechnology called Petco Love
Lost that uses image recognition, ai technology to reunite lost
pets.
Steven Ruffing (01:56):
And not to put all the great things that you do
to the side, because that's whyI wanted to give you that
opportunity to talk about thoseother things.
But, yes, that piece oftechnology that reunites the
owners with Lost Pets isdefinitely why we had you on,
but we didn't want to discreditall the other great things that
you did as well, or do, I shouldsay.
Abbie Moore (02:16):
Thank you.
Yes, we you know, for arelatively small organization,
we really have our hands on alot of pies and help in a lot of
different ways and there's somany incredibly brilliant people
working on the team and we'reso lucky because our goals
really are just to help animals.
We have a number of differentKPIs that we use to measure our
(02:39):
work, but at the end of the day,the bottom line for us is just
how many animals we can help andhow many people we can help and
how many people we can help.
Steven Ruffing (02:45):
And I do believe this is something that a lot of
people can relate to and careabout, because animals, when it
comes down to it, so vulnerableand helping them is something I
think a lot of people can uniteon.
So we'll jump right into thatLove Lost program.
Tell me all about how thattechnology, how it works,
specifically that facialrecognition that helps reunite
(03:08):
lost pets with their owners.
Abbie Moore (03:10):
Okay, you're going to have to stop me if I am
rambling on, because this is oneof my favorite favorite
subjects, so let me start alittle bit with the problem that
we're trying to solve.
So you hear about lost andfound pets and you know, first
of all, anytime somebody losestheir beloved animal, that makes
a huge impact on them and theirlife.
(03:31):
But there's also this bigsystemic aspect of the problem.
So about 50 to 60% of pets thatare entering animal shelters
are classified as quote unquotestray, which often just means
they're lost right, and oncethey get into the shelter they
only have a.
You know, they have a prettysmall chance of being returned
(03:54):
home.
You know our return to ownerrates, which is one of our KPIs
RTO return to owner for a really, really great shelter it's
probably around 30%, but we seeit as low as 6%.
So we're also in a time inanimal welfare where, for the
first time in decades,euthanasia is trending upward
(04:15):
instead of trending downward.
And so if we can make a dent inthat problem by A preventing
lost pets from coming into theshelter at all, by reuniting
them in the field or, breuniting them faster if they do
get into the shelter, we canmake a huge impact on
life-saving.
So that's really what inspiresus and inspired Petco Love to
(04:40):
you know first acquire thispiece of technology called
Finding Rover and then build itinto what it is today Petco Love
Lost.
As far as how it works, Imentioned that there's this
image recognition technology,and we can go into that a little
bit later in a little bit moredetail, but the thing that's
really cool about that is thatit opens the door for us to
(05:02):
reunite pets in a different way.
One of the major problems thatpeople have when they've lost a
pet is what do they do?
Where do they go?
There's so many options,there's so many places for
people to post lost and foundpets, and so it was our goal to
take all of those differentsources of data and combine them
into one database and then usethat image recognition
(05:24):
technology to compare photosthat have been posted on a
number of different platforms sothat we can reunite.
You know, we can match the lostpet listings with the found pet
listings, and so we partnerwith about 3,200 animal shelters
, so all of their lost pets arecoming into the system
automatically.
All of their lost pets arecoming into the system
automatically, and we havepartnered with Nextdoor and
(05:47):
Neighbors by Ring, and all oftheir pets are coming into the
database as well and of coursepeople report directly into our
system.
So that's really kind of anoverview of how it works.
Steven Ruffing (06:02):
Now, that's incredible.
Now, how do these owners accessall of that?
Where can they go to find?
Are they going to the shelters,or is it just a lot of people
kind of corresponding with eachother?
Is there a lot of differentavenues that maybe the owners
can access?
Abbie Moore (06:12):
Yes.
So that's a great question.
Our goal is sort of whereveryour lost and found pet journey
begins, that somehow you'remaking it into our system so
that we can use our technologyto help you make a reunion.
So if you go to the shelter andsay, hey, I've lost or found a
pet, in many cases what they'lldo is tell you to report that
(06:36):
pet directly into Petco LiveLost.
You know, as I mentioned, wepartner with a lot of animal
shelters and in addition totheir own pets the pets that are
in their care coming into thesystem, they're also talking to
members of their community whoare reaching out to them for
help and even if that petdoesn't come into the shelter,
they're recommending that thatperson report the pet into Petco
Love Lost.
(06:56):
So that's one avenue.
If somebody posts their lost peton Nextdoor, let's say or let
me use Neighbors by Ring, whichis a little bit different
example If they had a lost orfound pet there, they're given
an option to automatically havethat pet also appear in our
system.
If you are posting on Nextdoorand someone's searching on Petco
(07:20):
Love Lost, we are automaticallybringing all of those next door
pets into our database as well.
So it's just sort of a.
It's a very complex process tomanage all of this, all these
different data sources, but it'sso important that all lost pets
and all found pets are in onesingle database because you know
(07:41):
, unlike in any other category,competition harms everybody in
this space.
If you lose your pet, stephen,and you post that pet on
Nextdoor and I find your pet andI post on Petco Love Lost, or
post on Neighbors by Ring, andwe don't have this universal
database, we're not going tomake that reunion happen.
Steven Ruffing (08:02):
Yeah, it'll just be a lot of going back and
forth, a lot of different goingthrough one door, going out a
different door.
So, when you're thinking aboutthis technology, why did you
choose that facial recognition?
Was it one of the easier waysto make sure that all of these
pets get into the database?
I'm sure that might be the case.
Abbie Moore (08:22):
Yes, that is definitely part of the reason I
mean.
First of all, it's just a veryprecise way of searching.
It also removes, in the case ofanimal shelters, some of the
manual labor involved.
You know, prior to Petco, loveLoss and even sometimes now,
animal shelters have people ontheir staff who will manually
(08:43):
comb through listings on socialmedia or, you know, will take
the pets in their care andreally try manually to find
listings or even look at flyersthat are posted in their
neighborhood.
That's not a, you know, it'snot the best way to use these
people's time, and so, by usingthis AI technology, it removes
(09:04):
that sort of manual labor andalso removes human error from
the equation.
There are so many times when wemake a reunion happen and we'll
look at the lost pet photo andthe found pet photo and, with
the naked eye, they don't looklike the same animal.
But you know, with you know,our, our we just launched a
(09:27):
totally refactored machinelearning and it uses 512
different data points, you know,to compare photos and it can
see things that we don't see,and so that's.
That's another thing, but thebut you know, what you mentioned
is also really important.
That's another thing, but whatyou mentioned is also really
important.
We need to suck in all of thesephotos, all of these different
(09:49):
data sources and without anyother information, we can make
that reunion happen.
Steven Ruffing (10:02):
And that's a really great point.
Thinking about all of theanimals in, let's just say, the
United States, you're bound tohave dogs or cats that look like
each other.
Cats specifically, I mean, youhave some orange tabbies that I
couldn't tell the differencebetween 10 of them.
Does this AI technology?
Is there certain aspects of thepet's face that it really
focuses in on?
Like you said, there's thingsthat it can see, that the human
(10:23):
eye can't see.
Abbie Moore (10:24):
Yes, so it goes beyond facial recognition.
It's the full image and, as Imentioned, it's 512 different
data points, differentcombinations of data points.
But, yeah, it can focus in onthings like eye color, on the
shape of ears, on the distancebetween different features on
the face on, you know, differentfeatures on the face, on body
(10:46):
markings, I mean differentmarkings in the fur, tail size.
You know all kinds of thingsthat we don't see.
And, in addition, we can usemultiple photos to create a
composite of an animal.
So if the first photo thatsomeone uploads doesn't show a
marking on the body but thesecond photo does, our system
(11:09):
will combine everything that weknow into one sort of virtual
image.
Steven Ruffing (11:14):
It is really incredible what technology can
do Just throwing all of thosephotos and images together.
It really is amazing whattechnology, specifically AI, is
capable of.
Abbie Moore (11:25):
It really is, and you know you mentioned all the
different, all the householdsthat have pets.
I mean this could illustratethe scope of what we're talking
about.
You know it's about 89 millionhouseholds own a pet and our
data shows us that one in threepets will go missing during the
course of their life.
(11:46):
And so you know, some estimatesare about 10 million animals
going missing every year.
That's a lot of opportunity tohelp a pet when in reality these
are animals.
They have a mind of their own,they have instincts, they like
to roam, things happen, and sowe just really want to take all
(12:13):
of that weird emotion out of itand just help solve the problem.
Steven Ruffing (12:17):
Yeah, you really don't know what will happen.
Just a quick story.
One of our chihuahuas Hershey.
And just a quick story, my oneof our chihuahuas Hershey.
Before we had adopted them,before we rescued them, we found
out a story about her that sheroamed for a year, just got out,
roamed for a year and theneventually her microchip brought
her back.
Would have been great to havethat technology.
Abbie Moore (12:40):
Yeah, yeah, I mean talking, you know, speaking of
microchips.
Microchips are incredible andyou know we always like to say
if every pet had a microchip andevery microchip was up to date,
had up to date contactinformation in the system and
was registered to begin with,and every person who found a pet
(13:01):
knew how to take that pet toget that microchip scanned, we
might not need to exist, youknow, like problem solved, but
there's just a huge problem withgetting those microchips
registered.
For some reason, no matter whatwe do to encourage people to
register that microchip, they'renot doing it or if they're
moving, they're not updatingthat information.
(13:23):
Right, but there's, we canstill make a reunion happen
based on microchip number, evenif that microchip has never
actually been registered in anysystem.
And we did that recently.
There was an incredible story ofa guy in Manhattan who and this
actually made the news it wasall over the place, so you may
have heard this story, but thisguy, michael, and his dog,
(13:45):
millie.
She was on a walk in the EastVillage with a friend of his.
She slipped her I'm talkingabout the East Village in
Manhattan slipped her collarSomehow.
She ran 10 miles to Harlemwhere she was hit by a car.
Steven Ruffing (13:59):
Oh geez.
Abbie Moore (14:04):
Picked up by a good Samaritan who stopped traffic
to get her, and then that persontook Millie across state lines
to Paramus New Jersey, took herto a veterinary office to have
her seen for her injuries andthe veterinarian uploaded her to
Petco Love Lost.
Now, in the meantime, her owneris uploading her to Petco Love
Lost and we have a field formicrochip and he realizes oh my
(14:27):
gosh, I've never actuallyregistered the microchip, but I
have the microchip number on theadoption paperwork and so he
added it in.
The veterinarian who's seeingMillie scans her, finds the
microchip number, adds that toPetco Live Lost.
And Millie was home 14 hoursafter going missing and crossing
state lines.
Steven Ruffing (14:44):
That is incredible.
So if anybody could takesomething away from this podcast
.
If you have pets and haven'tregistered your microchip, I
think that's a pretty darn goodstory to to encourage them.
Abbie Moore (14:55):
Yes, I mean you just can't.
You can't take enoughprecautions when you're talking
about someone in your family whomeans so much to you and you
know, when you look at the data,it is likely that your pet will
go missing at some point duringtheir lifetime.
Steven Ruffing (15:09):
Yeah, absolutely , and that's just a great story
to kind of emphasize the, let'ssay, urgency and necessity.
Are there any other storiesthat may come to mind, just from
your personal experience withyour time at Petco Love that
kind of again emphasize thenecessity?
Abbie Moore (15:25):
Yes, before I jump into that, let me just say that
people can preemptively registeron Petco Love Loss before their
pet ever goes missing, which isgreat, because when you're in a
panic and your pet is missing,locating things like the best
photos or the microchip numberor anything that they want to
add in is.
You know, it's kind of onerouswhen you're when you're panicked
(15:48):
.
But if you already have that,you know that profile set up.
All you have to do is click onebutton and activate it.
But another story is recently.
This is there's a woman who wason vacation in Watsonville,
california, northern California,and her dog trying to remember
the story.
A door was open, the dog bolted.
(16:08):
Dog trying to remember thestory.
A door was open, the dog boltedand she uploaded this.
The dog to petco love lost,stayed out of town longer than
she was supposed to search fordays and days and days, was
absolutely heartbroken, finallywent home to southern california
, kept checking every single dayon petco love lost.
Five months later we sent heran alert that her dog was in the
(16:28):
santa cruz county animalshelter and they were reunited
five months later.
So you know, most of the timethese reunions are happening,
like you know, within 24 hours.
But it does show you that notto give up hope that there's a.
There's a journey that someanimals take, that it takes them
a while to get into any system,but we can still make that
reunion happen.
Steven Ruffing (16:49):
Yeah, that's a great takeaway with this
technology.
It's something that just letsyou hold on to that hope just a
little bit longer, becausesometimes not every case is the
same.
Sometimes it will take fivemonths.
That's a really great point.
I appreciate that story.
I really hope this kind ofencourages a lot of people and
opens up their eyes to what youdo and the technology and how
(17:09):
you use it.
So that that is great.
Abbie Moore (17:11):
And, by the way, everything we do is totally free
.
You know, there is not even away for you to spend money in
the system, unless you want tomake a donation to support our
nonprofit, of course.
But we want to make sure that,no matter who you are or what
means you have or don't have,that you are able to find your
lost pet and that we're offeringthe same level of service that
(17:33):
we.
You know we don't have anypremium features.
Everybody has access to thesame level of service for zero
dollars.
Steven Ruffing (17:40):
That is incredible.
Again, I'm sure a lot ofpeople's ears have perked up
after that because that isreally great, and that's just
goes to show the importance ofcharities, and especially when
it comes to animals.
Abbie Moore (17:52):
Yes, and we're very fortunate because of our
relationship with Petco.
You know, about 90 percent ofour operating budget comes from
those little donations thatpeople make when they're
checking out at their localPetco store and because of that
we're able to just concentrateon doing good work.
We don't have to constantly bethinking of ways to monetize our
(18:16):
systems.
Steven Ruffing (18:17):
We can just do what's right for animals and
people.
Another great point, really.
Now let's talk about thecreation of Petco Love Lost and
its platform.
How did your team the teamsmaybe before you how did they go
about in the early stages,building that Love Lost platform
?
Abbie Moore (18:32):
Yeah.
So let me preface this bysaying I am not an engineer, but
I will tell you all about thefunding.
So, as I mentioned, the firstiteration of what became Petco
Love Lost was something calledFinding Rover and they were just
brilliant in their foresight.
And they were just brilliant intheir foresight.
You know, this was long beforepeople were really talking about
AI, long before generative AIwas part of our daily vocabulary
(18:55):
, and they realized that therewas this opportunity Now that
technology became quite outdated.
You know, early challenges, ofcourse, with any machine
learning is finding enough datato train the system on.
You know, now it's a lot easierfor us.
We have about 10 million photospassing through our system
(19:16):
annually and it helps us toreally constantly be training
the system to be smarter andmore independent and to
recognize different aspects andto weight different aspects of a
pet's image differently andcorrectly.
But early on, where do you getmillions of photos to train on?
(19:38):
So that was a challenge andalso back then it was very
manual entering in the photo andthen tagging different parts of
it and even manually creatingan outline of a photo of a pet.
Luckily we don't have to dothat anymore because systems are
so much smarter and willcontinue to get smarter.
(19:59):
You know, unlike a microchip,this system is not like a
one-to-one match.
It's not like you upload yourphoto.
We give you one result this isdefinitely your pet.
We're going to result this isdefinitely your pet.
We're going to give you a pageof search results ordered by
what we think is, you know, mostlikely your pet.
(20:19):
We assign different, you knowscore ups and we, you know,
feature the highest score at thetop.
But eventually, I hope that itwill be really accurate.
Maybe it's like hey, here aretwo pets, one of these we think
is yours and that's it.
Steven Ruffing (20:29):
The beauty of it is the technology can only get
smarter from here.
Right now, as we're talking,it's the smartest that it will
ever be, or it's the smartestquote yeah, it has ever been,
and so that is the beauty of itand and just thinking about that
and it's able to learn, it'sable to grow and hopefully one
(20:49):
day those search results will befirst result.
It's yours, and maybe that'swhat you might be looking
towards in the future.
Abbie Moore (20:58):
That is definitely a goal.
You know, I think of a world inwhich we know your pet went
missing before you do.
You know, maybe you're at workand your pet goes out the door
and your pet gets entered intothe system and we know that you
live at X address and that youhave this pet and we're able to
(21:20):
really make a match and contactyou proactively.
Today you need to manuallyactivate your listing, but why
see a time before too long wherewe'll really have such a vast
database of people who haveproactively added their pets to
the system before their pet evergoes missing?
That will really be able toreach out proactively and help
(21:41):
your pet come home reallyquickly.
Steven Ruffing (21:43):
No, that's great .
And when we talk about theorigins, you said Finding Rover,
acquiring them was a huge partof getting this off the ground.
Are there any other keypartnerships that really get
Petco Love to where it is today?
Abbie Moore (21:57):
Yes, animal shelters, which are a huge
source of pet data.
They tend to manage theiroperations using one of several
different shelter managementsoftware programs.
So when pets come in they'reonboarded into that system and
these systems manage the petthrough the sort of life cycle
of their time in the shelter.
We have partnerships with eachof those shelter management
(22:20):
software systems so that thosesystems are automatically
shipping those pets into oursystem, managing them, removing
them when they're no longer inthe system.
That was enormous, I mean.
It's a huge effort but also hasa ton of payoff.
And now you know I mentionedthat we also have this sort of
B2B2C part of our strategy wherewe're also using those
(22:44):
relationships to reach membersof the public.
And so you know, when we lookat any kind of multi-sided
platform really depends onhaving enough you know, enough
users on both sides of theplatform.
For us it's also we need tomake sure that and I digress,
but that we have, when we lookat lost pets versus found pets,
(23:04):
that that's kind of equal.
And even geographically, youknow, if I'm looking in Los
Angeles or Omaha, nebraska, Ineed to make sure that I have an
equal number of lost and foundpets in those specific areas,
and so you know we look at a lotof different aspects to make
sure that we're doing the bestjob.
Steven Ruffing (23:22):
Yeah, absolutely .
And speaking of that, youanswered a lot of the questions
that I have prepared, so I justwould appreciate that.
And that takes me to kind of mynext point about just the
future of this innovation.
What other pieces of technology?
Of course we talked about themicrochip technology.
Are there any other forms oftechnology that you'd like to
(23:42):
tap into to kind of enhance thesystem?
Abbie Moore (23:45):
Yeah, I mean I think this is probably a ways
off in the future because youknow there's so much work to be
done in what we're doing and toperfect what we're doing.
But you know, I'm personallyexcited about biometrics and
using more things like, you know, nose print, technologyco, love
Lost and other systems likethat.
(24:06):
It really does enlist the helpof the community and bring them
in as a partner, because animalshelters are, you know, they're
(24:27):
filled with people who are justdoing great work every day and
they care so much, but the onusshould not be on them.
You know, to solve everyproblem, the community needs to
step up and be a part of thesolution, and so that's really
what we're trying to do is takesome of that pressure off of the
animal shelters and reallydemocratize the ability to
(24:49):
reunite lost pets.
Steven Ruffing (24:51):
You're absolutely right, because a lot
of those employees arevolunteers at those shelters and
every corner you look, thoseshelters are often overpopulated
.
It's really sad to see, and Ithink that's something that
Petco Love can really help isalleviating that pressure, just
like you said, from thoseshelters.
Abbie Moore (25:09):
Yes, yeah, and you know.
To dive a little bit morespecifically into what's
happening currently with animalshelters is you know we're still
seeing adoptions happen andwe're not seeing a huge increase
in animals coming into theshelter, which I know there's a
lot of reporting out there thattells a different story.
But what we are seeing is thelength of stay of animals in
(25:31):
shelters going up.
It's taking longer to get themout the door and because of that
there's an accumulation of pets.
That happens in the shelter andthat's what's causing this
overpopulation and bringing usto a time when perfectly healthy
, friendly, adoptable pets areat risk because there's just no
(25:52):
space.
Steven Ruffing (25:53):
Right, and we can go on and on about that and
addressing that issue, but justwith hopes of Petco Love, you
know, definitely one dayalleviating that.
And then my next question maybe a little difficult for you,
so I just want to prepare.
You gave me the percentages ofthe return to owners.
The RTO, I believe, is what youcalled it.
(26:13):
Roughly, how many pets hasPetco Love helped reunite with
their owners?
Abbie Moore (26:19):
Okay, this is a great question.
Okay, good, let me preface.
Well, let me say it's 120,000that we know of.
I mean, that's just from thelast couple of years and we're
kind of on this hockey stickpart of our growth where, you
know, it took us a while to getoff the ground and rebuilding
the technology and now it'sreally taking off and rebuilding
(26:42):
the technology, and now it'sreally taking off.
I say that we know of becauseit's often difficult to get
people to follow up and tell uswhat happened, and so we do our
best to follow up and ask themyou know, were you reunited with
your pet?
If so, did Petco Love Lost?
You know, were we instrumentalin making that reunion happen?
And that's where we're hearingfrom individuals.
120,000 individuals have toldus that, yes, their reunion
happened.
And that's where we're hearingfrom individuals.
120,000 individuals have toldus that, yes, that reunion
(27:02):
happened.
And, yes, it was Petco LoveLost that made it happen.
Steven Ruffing (27:05):
That is absolutely incredible and we'd
love to see that number go up.
And with hopes, with hopes,that number is more than what it
is, and you'd have to assumethat it is.
Abbie Moore (27:16):
Yeah, I mean we think it's significantly higher.
But we want to be very honestabout reporting our progress and
we want to be honest withourselves, because I think the
most dangerous thing that youcan do, if you're in any area of
innovation that is reallyimpact driven, is to tell
yourself a story that things arebetter than they are.
There's always room for lots ofimprovement.
(27:40):
There's room for us to innovatemore.
There's room for us certainlyto spread the word more and to
get more people aware of PetcoLove Lost and when they see
people on social media postingabout their lost pet, to
recommend that they go andcreate a free account on Petco
Love Lost and post their pet.
But 120,000 is still somethingthat we're very proud of.
Steven Ruffing (28:01):
And would you encourage, let's say, people
that aren't pet owners to alsomaybe register or download the
app or what have you, just tokind of keep an eye out?
Is that something that PetcoLove does?
Abbie Moore (28:14):
I mean that's a great thing to do.
I don't think I've ever beenasked that.
That's a great question.
Yeah, there are people who,whether they have a pet or not,
we call them super users.
They're in the system all thetime.
They are looking on their localsocial media, they are taking
responsibility for sort of being.
(28:35):
I remember block parents Likeyou might be too young, when I
was a kid.
I remember block parents Like Iyou might be too young when I
was a kid we had block parents.
If you were in trouble you knewwhat house to go to for help.
So there are people who havesort of kind of assigned
themselves that role of beingthe guardian of pets in their
community and we actually have aspecial page that people like
that can go to.
If you go to our homepage atpetcolovelostorg and you scroll
(28:58):
down, you can click on see allpets and you don't have to
upload a photo, you can justsearch.
We also have a really cool mapview that we just launched that
shows where pets were lost andfound in a community and allows
people to post sightings as well.
So even if they don't have thelost pet in their care, but they
saw a pet, they can help, bepart of the solution and
(29:20):
certainly, even if you don'thave a pet, you can still find a
pet in the street at any giventime and we're here to help
because we know that's a verystressful situation.
You don't know what to do Maybeyou're on your way to work and
to stop and try to help.
We really appreciate.
Steven Ruffing (29:39):
No, that is awesome because I can't imagine
how many times you know just me,for example like I've seen dogs
on the side of the road whereyou're kind of unable to stop
your car get out and help One wedid stop and it was an
aggressive dog.
That seemed like it was, youknow, just scared.
That seemed like it was, youknow, just scared.
(30:00):
You know that happens, I'm sure, to a lot of people.
So, having this outlet,something to kind of let a
community know, without havingto really put the dog, pet, cat,
whatever at risk, yep.
Abbie Moore (30:11):
Very good point.
Steven Ruffing (30:12):
Now we are talking about people joining in
animal shelters, gettinginvolved with that technology.
What does that onboardingprocess kind of look like?
Or is it just so simple thatthey just go right on to the
website and they're in?
Abbie Moore (30:26):
It is very simple.
We have a team, a small team ofpeople who do outreach to
animal shelters and help themget onboarded into the system.
It's a very simple process.
We just, you know, we want toremove as much friction as we
can and, like I said, I knowanimal shelters are just
constantly busy trying to saveas many lives as possible and
(30:49):
help as many community membersas possible.
So if we can take this work offof their plate and make it easy
for them to sign up and connectthat animal shelter software
that I mentioned so that theirlistings are automatically
uploaded and maintained, thatreally is our goal.
Steven Ruffing (31:06):
Absolutely, and I could sit here and talk about
the technology behind it, but aswe wrap things up, I really
would love to hear maybe apowerful story you personally
have heard with a family beingreunited with their pet and some
of the feedback that you've gotfrom pet parents or pet owners
that have used the platform.
Abbie Moore (31:25):
Yes, I actually have a piece of feedback right
in front of me that just came in.
We do a lot of, you know, we doa lot of qualitative research.
We talk to people every weekwho have lost or are down paths,
whether they're successful ornot in reuniting them.
We did an interview with an 85year old woman who was reunited
(31:46):
with her cat and she sent anemail after the interview and
I'm looking at it and she said Ithought about it after the
interview was over but I wish Ihad said I'm 85 years old and if
I can do it, anybody can do it.
It's very user-friendly andthat was so like just music to
our ears that we've createdsomething that no matter how
(32:08):
savvy you are I mean regardlessof how intricate and
sophisticated the technologyunderlying the system is that
anybody can come and use it andeasily get into the system and
figure out how to reunite withtheir pet.
So that's very meaningful.
But clearly anybody who's everloved a pet and especially if
(32:28):
you've lost one you know howabsolutely terrifying it is.
And so we hear a lot offeedback from people who are
just incredibly grateful that wewere there to help them,
whether we helped or not.
We hear from people that weweren't able to help, who still
appreciated what we were able todo for them and help them calm
down and give them some hope inthe moment.
So there's that.
(32:49):
I will end with the story of how, the story that's behind the
acquisition of Finding Rover.
Our chief financial officer,caroline incredible, brilliant
person.
We had some involvement withFinding Rover, we were partnered
with them and we knew that theyhad some interest in being
(33:11):
acquired.
Right at that moment Caroline'stwo beloved little dogs escaped
her home and she was franticand on a whim.
She remembered, you know,finding Rover and that we were
partnered with them and sheadded her pets and got a match.
I mean like miraculously, got amatch that her pets were in a
(33:32):
shelter.
She called that shelter, thatshelter said her pets weren't
there, and so she was able tocall the, to go to the shelter
and say I know my pets are herebecause I see like there's a
match and I see the pets are inyour system and she was able to
get her pets back.
And that really was what sortof sparked the.
We need to become thecaretakers of this piece of
(33:54):
technology as the nonprofit inthe field.
We need to make sure thateverybody, like Caroline, is
able to reclaim their pets.
Steven Ruffing (34:02):
That is incredible.
That is a great story and Iwish I would have asked about
that earlier, but I will saythat is a great kind of point to
end on, really the footnote ofthis interview.
That's incredible.
Abbie Moore (34:14):
Yeah, it's something that we talk about all
the time as our origin story.
Yeah, it's something that wetalk about all the time as our
origin story.
And you know, you just neverknow how valuable something like
that is until it happens to youand you're that frantic pet
parent.
Steven Ruffing (34:28):
Yeah, absolutely .
But the one thing I do want toend on just feel free to tell
everyone where they could findyou, how they could follow and
how they can sign up for PetcoLove.
Abbie Moore (34:37):
Yes, you can find us at PetcoLoveLostorg and you
can create a preemptiveregistration.
It's super, super easy.
It's just the bare minimumamount of information that we
need from you.
We're very protective ofpeople's personal information.
Also, we don't sell it.
We don't share it with anybody.
Very protective of privacy.
(34:58):
Upload a photo and just makesure that you are prepared If
anything happens.
You can just click your onebutton and activate your listing
and certainly, if you lose oryou find a pet, we're here to
help at any time, 24 hours a day, free of charge
PetcoLoveLossorg.
Steven Ruffing (35:17):
And, of course, there's a lot of things that we
did not get to.
So take that time and reallyexplore all of the things that
Petco Love does that we didn'thave a chance to get to today.
All right, abby, thank you somuch.
That's all the time we have.
We just want to thank you somuch for joining us today.
We really appreciate it.
This was a lot of fun.
Abbie Moore (35:34):
Thanks for having me this was a fantastic
conversation and thanks forasking so many great questions.
Steven Ruffing (35:39):
We appreciate it .
We appreciate it, of course.
All right, everyone.
That's all the time we have.
We'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the four worlds
podcast.
Until next time, you can catchup on the latest innovations
shaping our world attomorrowsworldtodaycom.
Follow us on Facebook andInstagram, and be sure to
(36:00):
subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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