Lost & Found

WHAT TO DO... IF YOU HAVE LOST A PET

VISIT THE NEAREST SHELTERS

It’s important that you visit all area shelters to look for your pet, because animals can wander far from home. It’s also necessary for you to personally look for your pet, because the description you give over the phone may not be the same as another person would provide for that animal. If you don’t find your pet at a particular shelter, leave a lost pet report and current photo with the staff. In Buncombe County , the shelter is run by Asheville Humane Society at 72 Lee’s Creek Rd. , Asheville ; the phone number is 253-6807.

ACT FAST 

• Check the shelters daily. Don’t assume that a shelter will house your animal any longer than a few days.
• If you have registered your pet by an ID tag or microchip, contact the registering agency and alert them that your pet is missing. Be sure your contact information is up to date.
• Notify friends and neighbors that your pet is lost.
• Contact veterinary practices in your area. They may have a Lost and Found bulletin board in their offices.
• Read the “found” ads, and take out a “lost” ad in the newspapers.
• Post fliers in your neighborhood and/or the area where you lost your pet, at nearby shelters and veterinary clinics. Area pet shops, pet groomers, schools, drug stores, gas station and grocery store bulletin boards are also good locations to place your flyers. Include a photo of your pet and any distinctive markings.
• Look for your pet in the area where he or she was lost as well as near your home. The quiet early morning hours are a good time to look for your pet.
• Don’t give up!
  

Why Pets Stray

    A common reason a pet will stray from home is that it isn’t spayed or neutered and is looking for a mate. Spaying or neutering eliminates an animal’s reproductive instincts and decreases the chances of its straying from home.

    The first step is prevention: keep your pets indoors or safely enclosed in a yard. Make sure it has a collar with ID tag and a microchip. Lost pets that have identification are many times more likely to be returned to their owners!

WHAT TO DO…IF YOU FOUND A PET

Please take the pet to the shelter right away so that we can begin working to get the animal home. In Buncombe County , the shelter is run by Asheville Humane Society at 72 Lee’s Creek Rd, Asheville ; the phone number is 253-6807. When you arrive with the pet, please enter through the rear of the building marked Receiving. We’ll ask you some questions about where and when the animal was found.

If Asheville Humane Society is closed and you found a pet that you are not able to care for until the morning, please call Animal Services in your area. In the City of Asheville that is 252-1110, in Buncombe County it is 253-1195.

If you'd like to care for the pet yourself, call AHS at (828) 253-6807 and leave a "found report" with a customer service representative in case the pet's owner contacts us. You can also visit your veterinarian or bring the animal to the shelter to have the animal scanned for a microchip ID and identify the breed, sex and age.