It’s my understanding that pet shelters and animal pounds can only tell you if they actually received your pet, not whether a private party is holding a found pet for you.
My idea is a centralized neighborhood pet lost & found directory for those who don’t know about or can’t use Craigslist or other internet tools. Also, some people don’t want to hand found pets over to animal control.
If you found a pet, you call or email me, and leave me a description, pictures, your phone number, address, etc. I will compare that to my “lost list” for potential matches.
If you lost a pet, you call or email me, describe your pet, and I will look at my “found list” for potential matches.
Hopefully, I will be able to say, “Mr. Smith found a small black dog two days ago and he may be holding it at 123 Elm Street.” If he doesn’t have it, then you might try Mrs. Jones at 456 Maple, who found a small black dog last week."
Maybe my city or neighborhood association can pay to set this up and advertise the Neighborhood Pet Lost & Found Directory with some cheap signs posted around the neighborhood. That way, whoever lost or found the pet is less likely to have to put up signs themselves. Just call me and I will try to make a match for you.
We live near a big park, so stray pets tend to go there fairly often. My wife and I see lost & found signs and stray pets all the time there.
Neat idea as a hobby, not seeing it working as a career choice. Might get some help with it from local vets, though…sell them advertising. “If Fluffy was chipped, it would be easier to get her back. Call Dr. Doolittle at 1-800-Chip-my-pet-for-less” or similar.
Heh. Not a business venture. Just an animal lover. All I really need is a spreadsheet, a phone number for people to call, and a few cheap signs posted about the neighborhood letting everyone know about the service.
It’s a lot harder than it seems. My neighbor found a dog in the street last summer. She asked if she could leave him with me “for an hour” while she went around the neighborhood knocking on doors. It turned out she didn’t find his owner, but she couldn’t take the dog back to her house - so, suddenly he became my responsibility. (I like dogs, but I’m not in a position to be a dog owner at this stage of my life.)
Anyway, once I established that he wasn’t chipped, I made a pile of “found dog” posters with a couple of color pictures.
I called the county Humane Society and they told me to email the poster. They kept it in an electronic file and on their bulletin board at the shelter for 30 days. So, they do offer that service.
In addition, I posted my flyer on every phone pole within a 3 mile radius in every direction; left it with vet’s offices, pet stores, terrier rescue places, etc. No one every claimed him.
This is a great dog; very cute and well trained. Someone obviously spent a LOT of time with the little guy and was probably devastated to lose him. The only thing I can think of is that the original owner was busy posting “lost dog” notices and not looking for “found dog” notices. Or, possibly, the dog had traveled a good distance before my neighbor found him.
The story did have a happy ending though. A friend of my boyfriend saw the dog’s picture and fell in love. So he did end up with a great home.
When I found a dog a few weeks ago, the first thing I did was call the cops (non-emergency).
The cops told me that no one had called looking for a basset hound, but they would check their records to see who had reported a lost basset in the past. Just like your spreadsheet there.
The dog I found had a collar with no tags. He was happy and tame. I assume the cops found his owner from their “previous calls” list because the owner was not very excited when he retrieved the dog, and casually mentioned “yeah, he gets out all the time.”
A dog outdoors without its tag is a dog without a home. Asshole 
Anyway…your service sounds nice but it also sounds exactly like what my local police do. Seems like it might be a lot of work for you with little payoff (where payoff = lots of people using your service and you helping a lot of dogs). The cops have their number monitored 24/7 and their number is published everywhere. Seems hard to top that.