Lost Your Pet?

Five Steps to Finding Your Pet

1. Search Our Shelter Online: Browse the online listings of pets in our shelter to see if your pet is listed.
2. Call the Humane Society’s Found Pet Recording: 253-383-2733, extension #1. Only pets found the previous day are listed, and only for that one day.
   
3. Visit the Kennels & Cattery: Take your time walking through the kennels and cattery to be sure you’ve seen all the pets. Strays are held a minimum of two business days before being made available for adoption. We recommend you visit the shelter at least every other day.
   
4. Check at the front counter: Five 3-ring binders are located in the front office, listing found animals that are not on view. They may be held at someone’s home, at a veterinary clinic, deceased or in quarantine.
   
5. Don’t give up! Some pets have been reunited with their owners months after being lost.

Other tips for finding your lost pet: 

• Continue to search, using the above suggestions.
• Contact the people closest to where your pet was lost.
• Post signs in the area, with a description and a photo if possible.
• Take out a classified ad in the local newspaper. Many newspapers offer free “lost pet” ads.

Found a Stray?

Bring the animal to our shelter: Bringing a stray pet to the shelter during open hours is the best way to reunite it with its owner. You can bring it to the shelter during business hours.

Contact animal control: If the pet is wearing a license, call your local animal control/pet licensing agency for the owner information. Animal control officers will bring strays without licenses to the Humane Society for sheltering.

• Tacoma
  (253) 627-7387
• Greater Pierce County
  (253) 798-7387
• Dupont, Lakewood, Steilacoom
  (253) 983-7800
• University Place
  (253) 798.3133
• Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Edgewood
  (253) 841-5595

If you wish to try to locate the owner yourself, please:   

• Call the shelter during business hours at 253.383.2733 and leave a description of the pet for our “Found Pet Book.” Owners looking for a lost pet are instructed to look in this book for a description of their pet. Shelter staff will then call you if they believe the owner has been located.
  
• Have the pet scanned for a microchip at your local veterinary clinic, or bring it to the shelter to be scanned. Often pets without external ID have microchips enabling identification of their owners.
  
• If you have found a pet during the hours the shelter is closed, please confine it until you can bring it to the shelter.