How to find your lost pet

Losing a pet is a heartbreaking experience, but now there’s a number of special organisations that will help reunite you pet with your pet.

One of the best ways of helping to re-unite you with your pet is to ensure they have a permanent form of identification that canbe traced to you, either a microchip, tattoo or freezmark.

Some companies offer their services free, while others charge a small fee. Most are animal specific with the webites and subsequent contacts dealing just with dogs or cats, although Petsearch(UK) covers all domestic pets and birds.

Here’s our list of contacts to help should your pet go missing:

• DogLost.co.uk is an internet-based dog registration scheme. It actively helps find a dog, as well as informing youof other missing dogs in your area.Although it is operates as a website, you do not have to have a computer to make contact. You can telephone for more details and the company will fax details through to you.For a fee of £36, they will create a missing poster showing a picture of your dog and distribute it to all the vets, petshops, dog wardens and rescue centres within a 30-mile radius of your home.For more information contact DogLost.co.uk (tel: 01909 733366) or click here to go direct to their website.
• www.lostpets.co.uk is a free lost and found classified resource on the web. For more information click here to visit their website.
• Lost Dogs UK is a website that lists missing or stolen dogs in the UK and Eire. It is free to use and displays the dog’s description, its last known whereabouts and who to contact if you have any information. For more information click here to visit their website.
• Petsearch(UK) is a free service that aims to help re-unite lost pets with their owners. They collate all reports of lost or found animals and display the most recent lost of found pet first. For more information click here to visit their website.
• HelpLostPets is a free website that lists lost and found pets across England, Scotland and Wales. For more information click here to visit their website.

Many local councils also offer advice on what to do if you lose a pet and more information can be found on their website.