If You Found a Pet - mChip.org Learn

What to do first Get the animal somewhere safe, check for a collar and tags, and get it scanned for a microchip at any vet clinic, shelter, or animal-control office — scanning is free and takes a minute. Report the found pet to your local shelter even if you plan to keep it while you search. If the pet has a tag Read every tag before anything else. A phone number means you can call the owner right now; a rabies or licence tag carries a traceable number even without a name; and a registry tag has an ID you can look up yourself. A collar is the fastest route home there is. Where to get a pet scanned Any veterinary clinic, animal shelter, or animal-control office should be able to scan a found pet for a microchip, free and without an appointment. Ask for a universal scanner, ask them to scan the whole body, and ask them to scan more than once — no scanner detects every chip on every pass. Looking up a chip number Enter the number into the free AAHA Universal Microchip Lookup Tool, which searches participating registries and tells you which one holds the record. You won't be given the owner's phone number — the registry contacts the owner for you, so the step that matters is filing a found report with your details. When the chip is a dead end A chip with no record, or a record with a dead phone number, is common and isn't the end of the search. Contact the chip's manufacturer, file a found report with your local shelter and animal-control office, and search lost-pet listings — most reunions happen through the shelter, not the chip. What a shelter does A shelter scans every animal at intake, looks the number up, and contacts whoever the record names. Meanwhile a stray hold period runs — a legally required window, commonly a few days to a week, during which the animal must be kept so the owner can reclaim it. Many states hold an identified animal longer. Keep, shelter, or post? It isn't a choice between three options — file a found report with your local shelter no matter what, because that's where owners look. Where the animal actually sleeps is a separate decision, and you can usually keep it with you while the search runs.