If you have been involved in lost pet search and recovery for a while, then you have probably heard of Missing Pet Partnership, a national non-profit organization dedicated to reuniting lost pets with their owners/guardians. Otherwise, you may have seen the name mentioned on this website or other websites related to lost pet recovery. However, you may have found that the website links are broken or refer you to other websites. So what happened to Missing Pet Partnership?
Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) was founded by pet detective Kat Albrecht, a former police officer, canine handler, and manager of search & rescue operations. From 2005 until 2008 MPP offered on-site seminar training for Missing Animal Response Technicians (MAR techs). MPP discontinued the seminars, but Kat Albrecht created a series of online Missing Animal Response courses that were offered through MPP. Missing Pet Partnership also offered on-site assistance in the Seattle, Washington, area and phone support from MPP Lost Pet Consultants, but these services were eventually discontinued.
MPP is actually a DBA (doing-business-as) name, and the actual name of the non-profit is the Lost-A-Pet Foundation. The Lost-a-Pet Foundation still exists and now operates under the name Mission Reunite. The non-profit changed its name when (in 2018) it changed its focus to providing lost pet consulting, training and support primarily to animal care and welfare organizations. Unfortunately, during this process, Mission Reunite changed their website domain name and removed many of the original MPP articles including the Pet Detective Directory. Update: As of December 2023, Mission Reunite discontinued their website. It is unclear whether they are still operating.
Kat Albrecht, the founder of MPP, parted ways with Missing Pet Partnership in 2017 and started a new business and education website: the Missing Animal Response Network (MARN). MARN focuses on providing Missing Animal Response training for pet detectives and lost pet volunteers and also offers lost pet search dog training. The majority of training is provided online, but regional on-site seminars are occasionally provided. The MARN website also includes a Pet Detective Directory and articles on lost pet behavior and recovery. You can learn more about MARN training opportunities here.
My experience with Missing Pet Partnership and the Missing Animal Response Network
I originally felt the need to write this article because numerous pages and blog articles on my website mention Missing Pet Partnership. I tried editing some of the pages, but some items (such as my original MAR tech certification) just didn't make sense to change. So for anyone that is really interested, here is my history with MPP and now MARN.
I first took an in-person Missing Animal Response Technician training offered by MPP in 2008 in Seattle, WA. The original on-site seminars were a week-long and concluded with a final exam. If you passed the exam, you were a "certified" MAR tech. In 2009 I started my own pet detective business Compassionate Pet Services, which I later changed to Lost Pet Research and Recovery. When MPP and Kat switched to online MAR tech trainings, a certification was no longer offered and you just received a certificate of completion. I re-took the MAR tech course in 2013 using the new online format.
From 2013-2015 I served as Secretary on the MPP Board of Directors and continued as a website volunteer through 2017. I attended the MPP Missing Animal Response K9 Boot Camp in 2014 and 2017 in Mystic, CT. In 2017 I was also a presenter at the MPP Lost Pet Recovery Seminar in Mystic, CT. And in 2016-2017, I was involved with the University of Queensland (Australia) and MPP's Missing Cat Study and I am a co-author on the published research paper: Methods Used to Locate Missing Cats and Locations Where Missing Cats Are Found. In 2018, I served as an instructor at the MARN Northeast Regional Training in Mystic, CT. I'm currently a charter member of MARN, and I'm looking forward to continuing education and research opportunities with them.
Im left wondering which of these names to google and where else to turn to? Like all pet “owners” I feel my pet is desperately in need of help and that failing to find my sweet boy would be the end of the world and Im growing more frantic as the days pass. My cat Pericles has been missing for twelve days. Please advise me where to turn. Id like to hire a search dog but other than Harrry Oates who seems most unreliable there dont appear to be any agencies in the Portland Oregon area. Ive put dirty vlithes if mine outside, I put notices up at as many Facebook groups and shelters as I could find. He has a chip registerd with Home Again. He doesnt use a litter box. More flyers go up today. Please help!
I’m sorry to hear that your cat is missing. For reliable information, I would recommend the Missing Animal Response Network or my own site. Though I don’t know anyone in OR, you may be able to find someone in WA on the MARN Pet Detective Directory. If you cannot find on-site help, I would recommend getting a phone consultation from a trained individual on that list. I also offer consultations: https://lostpetresearch.com/services/consultations/.
I was one of those lucky people who found my cat thanks to Missingpetpartnership.org. And I think it is important for people to know a couple of things, which I learned from your organization. I would suggest to the owner above that they should look for their cat within a three-to-five-house radius of home, and think TRAPPED. This is what I learned from you guys two years ago, and it led me straight to Foxy. So I hope that the person reading this can get going and talk to the neighbors and ask them to accompany them as they look inside their storerooms, sheds, and other places in their yards. It worked for me, and I know that the most important thing for these folks is to get their animals back, safe and sound.
Our cat disappeared a couple of years ago, and one of the tips from Missingpetpartnership.org helped us find her. It was getting dark, and she didn’t come back–unusual for her. I found Missingpetpartnership.org and read their tips. And this is what I found out. Cats don’t generally got beyond a 3 – 5 house radius of home, and if they DON’T come home, they are usually trapped in a big place or small, from exploring. Our cat Foxy was entrapped in a high-walled courtyard at just across the alley from our house–the woman who’d lived there was in assisted living. Thanks to those tips, I knew how to look. And we recovered our Foxy that evening.
MPP had a section on Found Strays. How can I access that?
I am no longer affiliated with MPP, so you’ll need to contact them directly. They are now called Mission Reunite. You can also find information on my website on how to find the owner of a found/stray cat here: https://lostpetresearch.com/lost-pet-resources/found-stray-cat/