Let’s Keep People and Pets Together
Losing a pet can be frightening. Should you lose your pet, it is critical that you act quickly to get the word out.
Here’s what you do when you lose a pet — or when you find a lost one.
I Lost an Animal
Losing a pet can be a traumatic experience for a pet owner. We know you are frantic and feeling lost yourself as to what to do to quickly reunite with your pet. We want to help you as much as we can to make sure your pet is safely returned home to you.
Dogs
Call Us
Call the Humane Society of Greater Dayton at 937-268-PETS (7387) to file a lost pet report with us. This helps us identify lost dogs brought to our facility. You can also fill out a report online.
Contact the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center
If you live in Montgomery County, contact the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center (not affiliated with the Humane Society of Greater Dayton) to report your missing dog. All stray dogs are taken first to the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center, located at 6790 Webster Street, Dayton, OH 45414. Dogs found by citizens are often taken to the Animal Resource Center. Visit their shelter immediately and frequently to check if your dog has been taken there. You can contact them at 937-898-4457.
What We Will Do
If a lost dog is brought to the Humane Society of Greater Dayton, we make every attempt to reunite the dog with its owner. This includes checking the dog’s license and scanning the animal for a pet-identification microchip. To identify a dog by its license, we enter its license number into the Montgomery County Auditor’s website. Please make sure that the Auditor’s office has your current contact information.
We scan lost dogs for a microchip, too. The microchip will direct us to the microchip company. The microchip company will provide the owner’s contact information. Please make sure that your information is current with the microchip company. Note: Microchips are not GPS-enabled. We cannot find your lost dog through GPS-tracking techniques.
If we can’t identify information on a lost dog, the dog will be sent to the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center for a specified holding period. Again, visit their shelter immediately and frequently!
Cats
Call Us
Call the Humane Society of Greater Dayton at 937-268-PETS (7387) to file a lost pet report with us. This helps us identify lost cats brought to our facility. You can also fill out a report online.
Places to Check
The first places to look for your pet are at the Humane Society of Greater Dayton and SICSA. Unless restricted by a city ordinance, cats are allowed to roam free.
Registering Your Pet With Us
You are not required by law to buy a license for your cat. We do recommend purchasing a cat registration tag through the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center.
What We Will Do
If your cat is brought to the Humane Society of Greater Dayton, we make every attempt to contact the owner using the tag information.
We will check incoming stray cats for a microchip. The microchip will direct us back to the microchip company. The microchip company will provide the owner’s contact information. Please make sure that your information is current with the microchip company. Note: Microchips are not GPS-enabled. We cannot find your lost cat through GPS-tracking techniques.
Other Animals
If you have lost another species of animal, please call the Humane Society of Greater Dayton at 937-268-PETS (7387). You can also fill our online lost pet form.
Other Resources to Help You Locate Your Pet
- Contact your local humane society, animal control, and larger rescue groups in your area, including:
- Humane Society of Greater Dayton – 937-268-PETS (7387), 1661 Nicholas Road, Dayton, OH 45417
- Montgomery County Animal Resource Center – 937-898-4457, 6790 Webster Street, Dayton, OH 45414
- SICSA – 937-294-6505, 8172 Washington Church Road, Washington Township, OH 45458
- Post your lost pet to social media groups such as Dayton Ohio and Surrounding Area Lost and Found Pets page on Facebook or on the Humane Society of Greater Dayton’s Facebook page.
- Use neighborhood-focus apps such as Nextdoor to post your missing pet and let those in your neighborhood help bring your pet home safely.
- Visit sites such as PawBoost to create a Lost Pet Flyer that you can email to neighbors and shelters as well as post throughout your community. We recommend posting them at grocery stores, coffee shops, delis, community centers, veterinary offices, traffic intersections, and pet supplies stores.
- Go door-to-door to talk with your neighbors and alert them that your pet is missing. The more people you have aware of and looking for your pet, the better!
- Talk to your mail carriers or local delivery drivers. They are constantly throughout your neighborhood and could help by keeping their eyes open in case they see a pet wandering the streets.
- Post your lost pet to websites such as Pet FBI or sites such as:
- Place an ad in your local newspaper.
Avoid Pet-Recovery Scams
Sadly, people may find your pet loss as an avenue to scam you during your desperate time. When talking to a stranger who believes they have found your pet, have them describe it to you in great detail. If there is a certain characteristic that helps to easily identify your pet, leave this information out of your public information.
If the person does not describe this special feature to you when you contact them, then there is a good chance they may not have your pet. Be extremely cautious if the person who claims to have your pet requires you to give them or wire them money in exchange for your pet.
I Found a Pet
Dogs
Who to Contact
If the dog has a license, visit your county’s auditor’s website. You should be able to look up the license number on their site and identify the owner. If your county auditor’s website does not have this feature, contact their office directly to look up a license number.
If you cannot find the dog’s owner, take the dog to your county’s animal control center. For Montgomery County, that would be the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center or call 937-898-4457. Because most shelters in our area are limited-intake, we have limited kennel space available to house found dogs. Plus, having one centralized location allows owners to look in one place to locate their dogs quickly rather than having to contact all of the different shelters in the community.
If you do not wish to take the animal to the ARC, you can provide it with a temporary home. You should still reach out to the ARC to file a found-dog report.
Visit the Humane Society of Greater Dayton, the ARC, or a local veterinarian to have the found dog scanned for a microchip. If the dog is microchipped, we will have contact information for the owners and can help you reunite the two.
Cats
Who to Contact
Did you find a stray cat and are looking for the owner? First off, thank you for taking in this cat, and thank you for also trying to find him or her their home! Please give us a call at 937-268-PETS (7387).
There are several options available to you if you find a cat. First off, bring the cat into the Humane Society of Greater Dayton or your local veterinary office to scan the cat for a microchip. If the cat is microchipped, we can help find the owner through that microchip number and reunite the cat with their family.
If the cat does not have a microchip, there are two options:
- You can temporarily keep the cat until you find the owner. We would ask you to file a found animal report with us so that if anyone reaches out to us, we can direct them to you if the missing pet matches what you have. Below, we have additional resources to help you spread the word regarding the found animal.
- If you cannot keep the animal, we can help take the animal if we have space available and if you are living in Montgomery County. As a limited-intake, no-kill facility, we only can take in as many animals as we have open cages. We do not ever euthanize for space. You will need to call our shelter to set up an appointment to bring in your cat by calling 937-268-PETS (7387). There will be an intake fee associated with surrendering this animal to us. Currently, our intake fee is $40 per adult cat (6 months or older) and $20 per kitten (younger than 6 months). This fee is a minimal cost for what our organization will spend to care for the cat and find it a forever home. Typically, it can cost our shelter an average of $250 per cat to provide it with nourishing food, veterinary care, vaccines, tests, microchip, housing, and more.
Other Animals
If you’re concerned about any other species of animal that you have found, please call the Humane Society of Greater Dayton at 937-268-PETS (7387).
