DISCLAIMER: If the animal is injured, sick or malnourished, please take them to the nearest veterinarian clinic or your city’s shelter, or contact your local animal control agency. Injured, sick or malnourished animals found within Kansas City Missouri can be brought to the KC Campus for Animal Care, or contact the Animal Services Division at 816-683-1373

1. Check for ID
   Some pets have a collar with the phone number stitched in, or a tag with a number that you can call to locate the pet parent.
2. Alert your neighbors
   Take a photo and share it with your neighbors by using the methods your community utilizes most to communicate. This could include Nextdoor, a Facebook group, or a neighborhood email list. Be sure to include where the animal was found and how to get in contact with you. Be descriptive, include as much detail as possible, and be sure to include where the animal was found and how to get in contact with you. It is important that you know the cross streets and/or the address where the pet was found.
3. Take a walk
   If possible, take a walk around the neighborhood to see if anyone might recognize the animal and know who they belong to.
4. Check for a microchip
   Bring the pet to the nearest veterinarian clinic or shelter to get a free microchip scan.

1. Bringing the animal indoors to safety
   Bringing a new animal into your home can pose risks to you and/or your household. As a precaution, please keep all pets separate and wash your hands frequently when handling the found animal. Disease and illness can spread quickly.
2. Start searching local lost & found pet alert sites
   The owner may have posted their pet as missing, so be sure to check websites such as Petco Love Lost, Pawboost and social media groups.
3. Post the animal as found
   If you don’t see any lost posts matching the pet you found, submit a Found Pet Report to KC Pet Project. Submitting a report helps KC Pet Project staff be on alert if the pet you found is reported by their owner, or if we receive calls about a lost pet whose description matches your found pet.
   We also recommend submitting a report to Petco Love Lost, Pawboost, and social media groups (reference groups are listed below).
   We recommend creating only one post on Facebook, and then sharing that post to various groups available instead of creating multiple posts. That way, as you have updates, you can update your original post instead of having to upload multiple different posts in different groups.
4. Make flyers and walk the neighborhood
   PetFBI has an easy online found pet flyer template that you can print from home! If you need help creating and printing a flyer a member of our Return-to-Home Team can assist you at our shelter. Then, walk the neighborhood, speak with neighbors, postal carriers, UPS/Amazon drivers, landscapers, and tell them about your found pet.

1. Hang found pet posters
   Hang posters with duct tape at major intersections within a 3-mile radius of where the dog was found or a 1-mile radius of where the cat was found.
2. Continue searching local lost and found pet alert sites
   Frequently search local lost and found pet alert sites for any leads on the animal’s owner and for any lost pet posts that match your found animal.

If the animal was found in Kansas City, Missouri and you are not in a position to continue caring for them while attempting to locate an owner, please visit the KC Campus for Animal Care to work with our Pet Support Team. We only accept animals at our KCCAC location (we do not accept animals at any of our Adoption Center locations). There is an intake fee for any stray drop offs and we ask that you please bring a valid photo ID. The intake fee helps the shelter cover the cost of food and medical care for the pet while at KC Pet Project.

We hold stray animals for five days. After this five day holding period, any stray animal can be put up for adoption, transferred to another shelter, sent to rescue, put into a foster home, and in rare cases, euthanized (only if serious medical issues exist or there are issues of aggression).

Interested in fostering this dog during the 5-day stray hold? Enroll in our Friendly Finder Program!

If the animal was found outside of Kansas City, Missouri, please contact your city shelter to discuss services. It’s important that the animal is taken to the shelter in the city it was found in to give them the best opportunity to reunite with their owner.