SAN ANTONIO – Thanks to a new smartphone app, you don't have to own a pet to save one.
It's called Finding Rover, and the city of San Antonio's Animal Care Services is the first area pet shelter to use the new facial recognition tool.
Three years ago, Finding Rover CEO and Founder John Polimeno was in a coffee shop with his wife and saw a lost dog picture.
"It brought back these terrible memories of this dog we lost, Harley. Kids in the backseat crying, driving all over town and putting up lost dog posters," Polimeno said. "If they can identify people using facial recognition, wouldn't it be cool if they could identify animals?"
And that's when the app was born.
Since its launch a year ago, Finding Rover has partnered with several shelters across the United States, including ACS in San Antonio.
"Now, with our phones we can save an animal or a neighbor's animal by just taking a picture," Polimeno said. "So you lose your pet, now all you have to do is press your phone and 'search for my pet in that shelter.' We do a facial recognition search and if it's been picked up, you can see that it's actually been picked up and you can go get it."
The Finding Rover app takes your pets unique features from an uploaded snapshot and keeps the photo in a free database. A special bark option makes taking a good picture pretty easy.
"We have over 77 shelters that are now on board, and we've found over 600 animals already and we're just starting," said Polimeno.
ACS said last year, it took in just over 22,000 lost or stray dogs.
The department said besides dog tags and micro-chips, registering your dog on Finding Rover is just another tool all dog owners should use to further protect their pet.
"Our goal is to have 100 million animals registered worldwide in the next six years," said Polimeno.
The Petco Foundation is also encouraging the use of this app by offering a $20,000 grant award to ACS if 20,000 community members sign-up for Finding Rover before July 4.
The app is available for free on the Apple's App Store and GooglePlay.