Animal Services is Top Dog for Work on App

 

Dan DeSousa, deputy director for the Department of Animal Services, picked up an award for the department's work with the dog facial recognition app Finding Rover.

The folks at Animal Services are all smiles after winning a Best of California 2015 Award from the Center for Digital Government for its work with the Finding Rover app. It uses facial recognition to reunite lost dogs with their owners. Animal Services became the first animal sheltering organization in the nation to use the app in May 2014.

Award winners are selected for innovative use of technology, economic benefits and improving public services. Deputy Director Dan DeSousa picked up the award for “Best Mobile/Wireless Project” during an awards presentation Thursday in Sacramento.  

“We’ve had a number of success stories with the Finding Rover app. Owners who have been reunited with their lost dogs couldn’t be more grateful,” said Animal Services Director Dawn Danielson. “A lot of credit goes to Kim Hatfield for recognizing an opportunity when she saw one.”

Hatfield is IT Manager for the Community Services Group. She saw the app and came up with the idea for Animal Services to partner with Finding Rover. The app uses snapshots of lost dogs to match the faces of those that have been found. She worked to make sure Animal Services database of lost and adoptable dogs was linked with Finding Rover’s registry of some 60,000 dogs. It’s updated several times a day to remain current. 

The Finding Rover app also prompted a change in the way Animal Services takes photographs of lost pets. Photos of lost animals were entered into the departmental computer system before but now staff takes special care to focus on the face so the Finding Rover facial recognition can work its magic. Anyone with a smartphone or computer can use the free app to look for their lost animals. The technology shows possible matches within seconds. 

Animal Services recommends all dog owners register their pets with Finding Rover along with getting ID tags, licenses and microchips.