‘Pet detectives’ who search, rescue and return lost ‘fur children’ to owners give rise to new niche profession in China
- Most pet detectives work alone and can charge between US$420 and US$4,200 depending on the level of difficulty and resources involved in a case
- They are often equipped with headlamps, torches, night vision goggles, nets and cages and are usually called to find missing cats and dogs
A new niche profession has emerged in mainland China’s big cities — pet detectives, thanks to the growing number of pet owners in recent years.
Most pet detectives work alone or with just a few colleagues and can charge between 3,000 yuan (US$420) and 30,000 yuan per case depending on the level of difficulty of finding and returning the lost animal, the China Youth Daily reported.
Pet detective Yan Zhiyon from Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province said after receiving an order, he would go to the site with one to two colleagues equipped with headlamps, torches, night vision goggles, nets and cages to help catch the missing pets, which are usually cats and dogs.
“Logical analysis and on-site reasoning abilities are important in our job. There are various ways of searching for lost pets,” Yan was quoted as saying.
Once he received a call from a family who lived on the 7th floor of a residential building and had lost their pet cat. Yan said the first thing for him and his team members to do when arriving at the flat was to judge whether the cat had run away or was hiding somewhere inside the building.
“According to traces left by the cat, such as footprints in the corridor and hair left in corners, we guessed that it could be somewhere between the 7th and 11th floors,” said Yan. “At last, it was found on the 8th floor.”
In another case, Yan’s team found a three-month-old cat trapped in a ventilation area. They rescued it by sending a detective who tied ropes around his waist and crawled through two holes, each with a diameter of 50cm, before reaching the cat.