Lost & Found Pets: Helping Reunite Pets With Their Families
Navigating the challenge of a lost or found pet requires prompt action and careful handling. Below are practical steps to increase the chances of reuniting lost pets with their owners and advice on safely managing stray animals.
If Your Pet is Lost, Caring Hands Animal Hospital Recommends:
- Create a Poster: Use this template. to make a poster with your pet’s information.
- Post Around the Neighborhood: Place posters in high-traffic areas such as intersections, grocery stores, coffee shops, gas stations, libraries, drug stores, and schools. Also, email the poster to neighbors, neighborhood watch groups, leasing offices, and homeowners associations.
- Inform Local Shelters & Hospitals: Send the poster to all animal shelters and veterinary clinics in your area. Use this list of animal shelters for reference.
- Visit Shelters: Don't rely solely on phone calls. Shelters are busy and may not match you with your pet over the phone. Visiting in person and checking recently found pets increases your chances.
Prevention Tip:
Microchipping is a highly effective way to ensure your pet can be identified and returned home. Collars and ID tags can fall off, but a microchip provides a permanent link to your contact information. Schedule an appointment for microchipping at Caring Hands Animal Hospital during your pet’s next wellness visit. Learn more about microchipping here.
If You Find a Pet, Caring Hands Animal Hospital Recommends:
Step 1 - Use Caution!
When handling a unfamiliar pet, remember that all animals can potentially carry zoonotic diseases (transmittable to humans), including rabies. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling the animal and keep them separated from your own pets to reduce the risk of disease transmission.
Frightened animals may be aggressive and could bite or scratch. If you feel unsure about handling the animal safely, contact Animal Control for assistance:
- Fairfax County Animal Control: 703.691.2131
- Prince William County Animal Control: 703.792.6465
- Arlington Animal Control: 703.931.9241
- Alexandria Animal Control: 703.746.4774
Next Steps
Is the pet wearing a collar?
Look for an ID tag with the owner’s contact information. If the pet is wearing a rabies tag, the phone number on the tag will connect you to the veterinary office that administered the vaccine. They can identify the pet using the tag number.
Visit a Shelter or Veterinary Office:
If the pet is not wearing an ID tag, take them to a nearby animal shelter or veterinary clinic. These facilities have microchip scanners that can quickly identify an implanted chip and reunite the pet with their family.
If No ID or Microchip is Found:
- Create a “found pet” poster and post it in the area where the animal was found.
- Notify local shelters and veterinary hospitals. Use this template to create your poster.
- Upload information and photos to websites dedicated to reuniting pets with their owners:
Have questions about wildlife? Click here!