CINCINNATI — Losing your pet is a scary thought, but Patrick Sledz, an Ohio entrepreneur, decided there had to be a better way to find your lost animal than a chip or tag.
What You Need To Know
- Patrick Sledz co-founded ZuluTails as an easier way to find and reunite lost pets with their owners
- ZuluTails has a unique code for each animal either on a collar or tag
- The pet finder enters that code on ZuluTails.com and immediately is brought to the lost animal’s page with information about the animal’s demeanor and other important information
- From there, the pet finder can securely contact the pet owner
It’s the dog days of summer, which means more walks in the park and family outings.
“There’s a real pent-up sense of excitement for people to get out, now that it’s summer, now that a lot of people are vaccinated and they feel a lot more comfortable with the guidance to go out,” Sledz said. “And that means bringing their pets out.”
Sledz and his lab, Duffy, love getting out and about once the weather gets nice. But Sledz said it also comes with fear of losing your pet.
“For anyone who has ever experienced losing a pet, it is scary,” he said. “Pets are members of our family.”
Which is why Sledz co-founded ZuluTails.com — a new way to bring lost pets back to their owners.
“If you find Duffy and you’re with your family, simply look, you go to the website. It’s very intuitive, ZuluTails.com,” he said. “We have a seven-character code here.”
The new membership program allows for an easy way to look up the lost pet.
“All you have to do is come here and it’s bright green and called out right here, found a pet,” Sledz explained.
After putting in the pet’s identification code on its collar or tag, the dog’s information is loaded, including any information about the dog, such as if it’s good with kids or its favorite food. From there, you can securely contact the pet’s owner to reunite them.
“Immediately it comes up, someone is trying to reach out via ZuluTails.com about Duffy,” Sledz said.
Sledz said pet owners can often become frantic when their pet is lost, which is why ZuluTails makes sure to keep all information private and uses an anonymous texting service, much like ride shares.
“As soon as a pet goes missing, a loved one is gone, people get scared and act on impulse,” Sledz said. “They go all over social media and post their phone number, their email address, their home address, pictures of their family.”
Sledz said while chips and tags can be useful, his new business will allow for an easier and faster way to find a missing pet.
“This is a great way for people to have an extra layer of security,” he said. “Knowing that, just like their family members, their pets are protected, too.”
