Lost & Found Services | Your Pet's Ticket Home | Who to Contact | Finding a Lost Pet

Lost & Found Services

If an animal is wearing an I.D. tag, we will shelter the pet for a minimum of 10 days, not counting the arrival day, before they can be adopted. Pets without any collar, string, chain, flea collar will be sheltered for 5 days, not counting the arrival day, before we adopt the animal out. Stray animals are not allowed to leave their cages before the day available to prevent the possibility of their escape.

To recover some of our operating expenses, we do require a $35 fee for the first day we shelter a lost pet, and $15 for each additional day.

If you have further questions regarding a lost pet, please contact the shelter at 221-0150.

Your Pet’s Ticket Home

Your dog or cat should always wear a rabies tag and an I.D. tag with your current address and phone number. The collar should fit so that you can insert just two of your fingers underneath it, between the collar and your pet’s neck. Puppies and kittens need to have their collars adjusted as they grow.

In addition to wearing current tags, you may also want to have an identification microchip implanted in your pet. Your veterinarian can provide you with information about microchipping. In an effort to reunite more lost pets with their families, the Heritage Humane Society can scan lost pets for microchips.

Who to Contact:

(Since phone numbers can change, you may need to check local listings.)

Finding a Lost Pet:

• Why Pets Stray

One of the most common reasons a pet will stray is because it isn’t spayed or neutered. An “intact” pet will look for another animal with which to mate. Additionally, a spayed or neutered pet is more likely to be attentive to you and the training you provide.

• Visit Every Shelter

It’s important that you visit every shelter in the area to look for your pet because animals can often wander great distances. They also have the opportunity to travel in cars. Sometimes a person who finds an animal might not take it to the closest shelter in the area, but instead take it to a shelter they are familiar with, or one that is located near their home or office.

It’s necessary for you to personally look for your pet in every shelter because the description you give of your pet over the phone may not be the description that another person would provide that animal. For instance, what one person considers a black dog with white markings may appear to be a white dog with black markings to someone else. If you don’t find your pet a t a particular shelter, be sure to fill out a lost report and leave a current photo of your pet with the staff there.

• Act Fast

Check each shelter daily until your pet is found. Don’t assume that a shelter will house your animal any longer than five days.

• Check with other people

Notify people who are familiar with your pet that it is lost. Newspaper and mail carriers and neighborhood children commonly identify pets with their homes. You may also want to check with area veterinary offices.

• Newspapers & Fliers & Websites

Someone may already have found your pet. Read the “found” advertisements in the Virginia Gazette and the Daily Press. Check our website often, take out a “lost” ad in the local newspapers and, if your neighborhood permits it, post fliers. Check our website and that of surrounding shelters routinely, as well as check the links to other sites on our homepage.

• Don’t give up

Some pets are found after months of searching!

	inspice.com Lost or found a pet?  Visit this site to list a found pet or search for a lost one.
	http://www.hrlostpets.org/ Report Lost or found pets here.  Find out information on how to prevent or search for a lost pet.