Responsible Pet Ownership: Online Safety

Responsible Pet Ownership: Online Safety

We’ve written about being a responsible pet owner many times - because being a responsible owner means meeting the needs of your pets consistently to ensure they live to the highest welfare standards. You will by now know that we’re very passionate about this and believe that this should be a minimum when adding a pet to your family.

In this post, we’re discussing the safety of our pets when we post them online. It’s something that we don’t consider as dangerous as our pet near a main road, but it’s another component to being a responsible pet owner.

We all have our preferences. All dogs have to wear an identification tag (some cat owners do this too) but owners who have incredibly friendly dogs often won’t include the name of their pet. How easy would it be for someone to read a friendly pooch’s tag, say their name and walk off with them?

Your pet’s name is likely to be online. A post you’ve written, a caption on a photo or even their own page. So there’s a couple of things you can easily do to keep you and them safe:

What’s in your picture?

If you’re posting pictures of your pet, look out for what you’re including. House numbers and street names can make it easier for someone to find out where you live. Similarly, number plates (more difficultly) can be searched to find your details. You’ll also have included your phone number on your pet’s ID tag, so make sure it’s turned the right way round or if it’s a picture you adore, edit it out!

All photos also contain information in their metadata. So even if your cautious of what’s in the image, someone can still find out when, where and how you took your photo. You can turn this off as well as EXIF data and geotagging so people can’t find your location.

Competitions and Marketing

Unfortunately, we’re all susceptible to entering personal details for a very good offer. We’re even more likely if it’s for our pet. If you’ve got lots of great photos of your pet, you might receive online messages and links from people trying to get hold of your details. If it’s too good to be true, it normally is! Quadruple check the credentials of a business before offering your details.

Passwords

We’ve all done it. We’ve all used our first pets name as a security answer or a password. If your pet’s name is online and someone wants to access a private account of yours, this is likely where they’ll start. Consider mixing it up and using associated words, abbreviated or nicknames rather than their name.

The online world is an amazing tool. It allows us to research the best products for our pets, find reputable pet services and ultimately, allows us to watch videos of other people’s pets doing hilarious things. Being a little more conscious of what we’re putting out there doesn’t just keep us safe but also our animals too.