If you commonly use Waze in Costa Rica to find your way around or try to avoid heavy traffic now you can also help find lost pets while using this app.

This option for the time being is only in its testing phase, it will function for 8 months and if the results are satisfactory it will remain available.

How does it work? Simple, if someone losses his/her dog or cat all they need to do is send the information of the pet by email to [email protected] or through their Facebook page, along with a photo of the pet, name, breed and additional characteristics that would allow easy identification of the animal, the area where it went missing and owner contact details.

Once these information is sent it becomes available in Waze, an alert is sent, and if while on the road a driver spots a lost dog all that needs to be done is type “Perro Perdido” (Lost Dog)in the search bar and the system will display the list of lost pets in a radius of six kilometers, along with the area where it got lost; this way if you spot the pet you can report its location or even return it to its owner if possible.

This is an initiative from Proventas Cartago a company that distributes veterinary products and it is completely free. In the first week seven pets were announced as lost and 4 were successfully found.

According to the National Study of Dog Tenure an average of 200 thousand pets escape every year and they cause hundreds of traffic accidents.