WHAT TO DO IF YOU LOST A PET
CHECKLIST OF ACTION ITEMS
- Walk around your neighborhood – remember to take a leash or carrier and a tasty treat
- Make sure your pet’s microchip registration is up-to-date, and notify the registry that your pet is lost
- If you’re not sure where your microchip is registered, check PetMicrochipLookup.org
- Contact local shelters, rescues and veterinarians
- Report lost pet on community sites such as Nextdoor, PawBoost, PetFBI, Finding Rover, Facebook, and PetHub
- Create a Lost Pet Poster on bright paper and distribute it locally.
- Notify your veterinarian
- Locate important ownership paperwork
VIDEO TUTORIALS
LOOK UP A MICROCHIP WITH AAHA
With all the different companies, pet microchip registration can get pretty confusing. You can actually register any chip with any company, and we accept all brands of microchips. It’s totally fine to use multiple registries as long as you keep all the records up-to-date. U.S. registries don’t share info, so you just need to update each registry separately. The Michelson Found Animals Registry is 100% free for all pets.
Because we participate in the Universal Pet Microchip Lookup, any shelter or vet that finds your pet can check there to see if you’re registered – AVID’s actually the only registry that doesn’t work with that site. AAHA is a great resource because it does a live search of almost all registries at once. We recommend using it for every found pet, even if the chip looks familiar.
LOST PET SERVICES
LOST PET PREVENTION: DOGISH PODCAST
Gina Knepp, expert in pet reunification, shares her top tips for lost pet prevention, including details on what to do if your pet is already lost.