Neighbors Verified Guide for Animal Welfare

Whether you're reuniting lost pets, promoting an upcoming adoption event, or keeping your community in the loop, Neighbors Verified helps animal shelters and animal control agencies connect with the residents they serve. This guide covers everything your team needs to get started and make the most of every feature. Don't have a Neighbors Verified account? Click here to start the process.

Quick Start: Where to Begin

New to Neighbors Verified? Here's how to hit the ground running:

1. Log into your profile

   — Visit

   publicsafety.ring.com

   from any desktop or mobile browser. On mobile, save the page to your home screen for easy, app-like access.
2. Turn on Lost & Found Pets

   — Go to

   Filters

   and turn on

   Lost and Found Pets

   so you can see pet posts from residents in your area.
3. Explore your area

   — View lost and found pet posts already being shared by residents in your community.
4. Make your first post

   — Try a

   Regional Post

   to introduce your organization to the community.
5. Share Search Party flyers

   — Display them in your lobby to educate pet owners about Search Party so they know exactly what to do if their dog ever goes missing.

   Click here to find available flyers

What You Can Do

• View

  lost and found pet posts shared by residents within your jurisdiction
• Interact

  on resident posts as a verified, trusted organization
• Post

  to your entire service area or to a specific location

Choosing the Right Post Type

Neighbors Verified offers two post types to match your audience to your message.

Regional Post

Reaches residents across your entire service area or within a specific zone or section of your service area.

Use a Regional Post for:

• Upcoming events (adoption, microchipping clinics, vaccine drives)
• Volunteer and foster opportunities
• Emergency or community-wide alerts
• Multiple missing pets or bulk lost pet notices
• General shelter announcements and updates

Tip: If your agency covers a large service area, consider breaking it into zones or sections and targeting Regional Posts to the most relevant area so the right residents see the right message. Learn more about Assigned Areas.

Specific Location Post

Reaches residents who have opted in to receive alerts from that area.

Use a Specific Location Post for:

• Found pets — enter the address where the animal was picked up to connect with residents most likely to recognize the pet or know the owner
• Lost pet alerts tied to a specific neighborhood or street
• Stray animal sightings at a known location

Tip: When posting a found pet, use the address where the animal was picked up instead of posting to your entire jurisdiction. Specific Location Posts keeps your community from being flooded with notifications while still reaching the right people.

To create a post:

1. Tap

   Create
2. Select your post category (e.g., Lost & Found Pets)
3. Choose

   Regional Post

   or

   Post to a Specific Location
4. Add your photo, details, and post

Tip: Keeping comments enabled allows residents to ask questions about your events and clinics, share sightings of lost pets, and provide other helpful community information.

How Your Team Can Use Neighbors Verified

Animal Control Officers

Log into Neighbors Verified at publicsafety.ring.com on your mobile device. When you pick up a lost pet, take a photo and post a Found Pet alert using a Specific Location Post at the address where the animal was picked up. This reaches residents in the immediate area, the people most likely to recognize the pet or know the owner, giving you the best chance of a reunion before the animal reaches the shelter.

Use the Found Pet template to create and share a Found Pet alert in minutes. Learn how to use post templates.

Shelter Intake Coordinators / Volunteers

When a new animal comes in, cross-reference your intake with recent lost pet posts in your jurisdiction. If you find a match, comment directly on the resident's post to let them know their pet is safe at your shelter. This step can significantly reduce the length of stay for lost pets.

Community Outreach Teams

Use Neighbors Verified to keep your community informed and engaged year-round. Promote upcoming adoption events, microchipping clinics, vaccine drives, and share volunteer opportunities to grow your support network and drive foot traffic to your shelter.

Resolving Your Post

When you've successfully reunited a lost pet with their owner, wrapped up an adoption event, or completed any community initiative you posted about, remember to resolve the post. Locate your post, then select the Incident Status bar and change it from Unresolved to Resolved. Resolving the post brings it back to the top of the feed and informs community members who were engaged or following along. This closes the loop, shows the positive impact of their support, and demonstrates how your organization is making a difference in the community.

Supporting Successful Adoptions

When a pet finds their forever home, help new pet parents get started on the right paw. Encourage adopters to create a pet profile in the Neighbors app. This helps them:

• Have their pet's information ready if they ever go missing
• Launch a Search Party using their Pet Profile

Consider including information about pet profiles in your adoption packets or mentioning it during the adoption process. It only takes a few minutes to set up and helps new pet owners be prepared from day one.

To create a Pet Profile: Navigate to Neighbors → Click the settings icon → Select My Pets → Create New Profile

Introducing Search Party

Search Party helps find lost dogs in the neighborhood. When someone reports a missing dog in the Ring app, their neighbors’ outdoor Ring cameras check for possible matches in their recordings. If their camera spots what might be the lost dog, the camera owner will get an alert with:

• A picture of the possible matching dog
• Video footage from their camera

They can choose to ignore the alert or respond to the alert and share the info with their neighbor. Ring camera owners have full control of their devices and recordings, and participation in Search Party is entirely optional; users can opt out at any time.

How Residents Initiate a Search Party

Anyone can create a Lost Dog Post in the Ring app. Ring users can also initiate a Search Party to look for their lost dog through the Ring app, no subscription required. When someone creates a Lost Dog Post in the Ring app, the app guides them through activating the Search Party feature, if eligible and lets them share details about their lost dog.

How Your Shelter Can Help

Display these flyers in your lobby to educate pet owners about Search Party so they know exactly what to do the moment their dog goes missing. Click here to find available flyers

Tip: When a pet owner comes in looking for their lost dog, let them know about Search Party as an additional tool they can start directly from the Ring app. It only takes a few minutes. Learn more at ring.com/search-party