Frequently Asked Questions about Pets Located

If You've Lost A Pet…

To start with you can search our database of pets which have been found. If you find a pet which you think is your missing pet you can register your details and you will then be able to send a message to the finder via our secure messaging service.

If you want to narrow the search area down or you can't see your missing pet on our website, simply register with us and you can a) specify a smaller radius in which to search and b) benefit from the peace of mind of knowing that for the whole period of your registration we will e-mail you with any pets which are added to our database that match the details of the missing pet which you have entered.

More details of how we work can be found here.

This service is only available for people who have registered their lost pet on this website. Registration starts from only £6.00 per pet which includes fully automated searching on your behalf. Other registration periods are available.

If you see a pet on this website, which you think is your missing pet, you will need to register your pet's details. You will then be able to send a message to the finder via our Secure Messaging Service. Registration is needed to protect the Finder and the pet.

If it turns out not to be your pet, you will benefit from the peace of mind of knowing that we will e-mail you with found pets which are added that match the details of the missing pet which you have entered - for the full period of your registration.

There are lots of benefits of registering your lost pet on this website - including the fact that we continually and automatically check for matches for your pet from the moment registration is completed for the full term of your registration. Click here to read about how we work and get more information.

For details of why we make a nominal charge for registering lost pets, please click here.

When you register your lost pet, the details will become active as soon as you have paid the registration fee.

The site will then immediately check your pet's details against all of the relevant Found entries and let you know by e-mail if there are any matches.

At the same time, your pet's details will be Tweeted out to over 13,700 followers.

We offer 12 month (£15.00), 6 month (£10.00), 3 month (£8.00) and 1 month (£6.00) subscriptions per pet for lost pets. Visit our Pricing page.

Why do we make a small charge for Lost Pet listings?

We make a nominal charge so that we can constantly work to improve this website and its automatic matching functionality to ensure that we can provide the best service possible to you.

We would love to offer this service free of charge but unfortunately like vets, pet food suppliers and pet insurers we do have overheads which have to be covered every month.

Pets Located automatically matches lost pets against found pets every time a new pet is added (whether lost or found) which we believe is a unique service and ensures that matches happen very quickly rather than people having to trawl through huge listings (there are currently 6,624 Found pets listed on the site).

Whenever matches are made the owner is automatically notified by e-mail - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, immediately. The Secure Messaging Service enables Finders to be sure that they won't get people trying to claim animals which aren't theirs because they can make sure the person is genuine and that the pet exactly matches the one they've registered before they give any details of where the pet is.

More information on what the registration fee covers can be found here.

For people registering a lost pet, we accept the following debit and credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, Switch/Maestro, Visa Delta and Visa Electron.

Unfortunately we have no facility to accept orders when payment is by cheque or cash.

We use WorldPay to process our credit/debit card payments. WorldPay is a well established company specialising in electronic payment processing and for added security you are directed to their secure server to enter your card details. Your card details and are not seen or stored by ourselves.

When our unique matching engine finds a pet which potentially matches your missing pet, you will be sent an e-mail with the details along with a link to view the information on this website. You can then contact the finder through our secure messaging system.

Matches are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being an unlikely match, 5 being there are lots of similarities). 'Potential Match' notifications are only sent out where the website rates the match as 3/5 or higher, but owners can always check for lower rated matches by visiting the My Matches page and selecting one of the 'green paws'.

If your pet has returned home itself, has been reunited with you, or has been found deceased, please deactivate your listing on Pets Located to ensure that the database is up to date for those who have yet to be reunited with their pets. You can do this by logging in and going to the My Pets page on your account and selecting the 'Remove from site' option to the right. Any remaining term left on your subscription will remain valid until the expiry date so you can re-activate the listing during that time should you wish to.

If you wish to completely remove your account from this website, you can do so by going to the My Account page and selecting the option at the bottom of the page. This will, however, also delete any remaining subscription term.

Simply log in and go to the Manage Your Pets link at the top of the My Account page. There is an option on the right of each pet's details to 'Manage Photos'. Click on this button and it will take you to a page where you can easily upload photos. You can rotate photos on the preview page once they have been uploaded if you need to.

Sometimes people do take a while to respond to messages. Every time you send a message the recipient is automatically sent an e-mail by Pets Located to prompt them to check their inbox on this website.

For owners of lost pets, we automatically send a reminder to Finders who have not read your message after 24 hours to prompt them again to check their messages and send you a reply.

If the recipient is a member of the public they may be on holiday or using a work/home based e-mail so can only check messages at certain times. If they are an animal welfare organisation or vet, they may only be open at certain times.

Due to Data Protection Regulations and our Privacy Policy we are unable to provide you with any further details of the recipient. Please be patient and hopefully they will come back to you soon.

If You've Found a Pet…

Adding details of a pet you have found is free and easy. Simply click on the Found a Pet? link and enter your details along with the details of the pet. We will send you a confirmation e-mail to validate your e-mail address and as soon as you click on the link in the e-mail, you will be helping someone to find their missing pet. The whole process should take no longer than 5 minutes.

It doesn't cost anything to list Found Pets on Pets Located - just a few minutes of your time, which could help an owner be reunited with their beloved pet.

To ensure that only genuine entries are added to our database, we do not show the details of any pets which have been found until you have validated your e-mail address by clicking on a link which we provide in an e-mail that we send to you. You only need to validate your e-mail address once. You can then add as many found pets as you need to without further validation.

If you do not receive the e-mail you can request a copy.

When you register the details of a pet which you have found, we will send you an e-mail containing a link which you must click on (or copy into your browser). This then confirms that the e-mail address is valid.

If you do not receive the e-mail you can request a copy.

When you register the details of a pet you have found, your listing will appear as soon as you have entered the details on to the website and validated your e-mail address.

Yes. Once you have created and validated your account by adding the details of your first found pet, when you log in you will be given the option to add the details of other found pets. Or you can simply click on the Found a Pet? link and follow the instructions for logging in from there.

There are lots of benefits for Animal Welfare Organisations and vets by using this website as their 'Lost and Found Book' - click here for more information.

If the pet is injured and still alive please call your local vet who will be able to advise what to do next.

If the pet is deceased you should contact your local Council Environmental Department who will be able to advise what to do next.

You may also wish to add details of the pet to our site as the owner may be looking for the pet and may wish to know the outcome.

Adding details of a pet you have found is free and easy. Simply click here and enter your details along with the details of the pet. We will send you a confirmation e-mail to validate your e-mail address and as soon as you click on the link in the e-mail, you will be helping someone to find their missing pet. The whole process should take no longer than 5 minutes.

If you have found a stray dog please register it on this site so it can be reunited with its owner as quickly as possible. Please also, where possible, get the dog scanned for a microchip.

You must then contact your Local Authority who are legally responsible for stray dogs.

A dog is classed as being stray if it is in a public place without its owner or the person who is responsible for it. A dog that is roaming or straying that is acting aggressively needs to be reported to the local police and dog warden.

This can be done through the My Pets page when you are logged in to this website. Under the 'Options' column there is link to 'Remove from site'. Your listing will be removed from the main website but you will still be able to access and reactivate it for 5 days should you need to. After this time the listing will automatically be archived.

If you wish to completely remove your account from this website, you can do so by going to the My Account page and selecting the option at the bottom of the page.

General Questions

To protect the pets registered on this website we will not release details of the whereabouts of any pet to a 'finder', 'owner' or any 3rd Party (please see our Privacy Policy).

Finders and Owners need to register on this website and they can then communicate through the site's Secure Messaging Service.

It is the responsibility of 'finders' to directly decide if someone claiming a found pet is the genuine owner. The Secure Messaging Service enables Finders and Owners to communicate anonymously with each other and also to keep the location of the pet anonymous until such time as both parties are happy to release further details to each other.

Registration of a Lost Pet starts from £6.00 per pet and includes fully automated searching. Other registration periods are available.

Registration of Found Pets is Free of Charge.

As well as providing you with the ability to search the Pets Located website yourself, by using the latest matching technology, we continually check the details that you have entered about your pet (such as colour, size, age, location last seen etc) against new entries that are added to the database and e-mail you with any potential matches. You can then send messages via our Secure Messaging Service to the finder of a matching pet to obtain more details and ascertain whether it is indeed your missing pet.

More details of how we work can be found here.

At Pets Located we have developed a unique matching engine which checks lost pet details against those registered as 'found' on the database.

Based on a number of criteria, a score is calculated which shows how similar two pets are. Occasionally you may get 'matches' which are fairly obviously incorrect to a human, but because of the similarities in a number of other areas, the match is put forward to you - we don't want to exclude a potential match because the finder didn't know the exact details, or entered them slightly differently to the owner. For example, is a Dalmation dog: white with black areas, black with white areas, or a black and white dog?? You may also find matches which are a large distance away from where the pet was lost. This is taken into account when the score is derived. We regularly have cats which get trapped in lorries and have travelled long distances, or dogs which have been stolen and moved to another area of the country, so again, we don't want to exclude these as potential matches.

The Secure Messaging Service works by enabling anonymous communication between Finders and Owners. At no time will Pets Located give out your e-mail address or phone number without your consent (see our Privacy Policy). The only information that the other party will see is your unique Messaging Name (see below).

When a message is sent via the website, Pets Located will e-mail the recipient advising them that there is a message on the website for them. Messages are then available within the My Messages section when Finders/Owners are logged in. Messages can be replied to from there as well.

You can now opt-in to receive a free text whenever you get a message through the site's Secure Messaging Service (see below)

If you decide to give your personal details to the other party in a message, please ensure that you are comfortable with doing so and that the other party is genuine.

Your Messaging Name will be visible to any party with whom you may communicate through our Secure Messaging Service. This identifier will enable you, the user, to remain anonymous and will ensure that no personal details are shared with any other party unless you expressly choose to include your personal details in any messages with another party.

Consider that this identifier, if also used elsewhere, could potentially be 'googled' and, if linked elsewhere on the internet to available information, may be able to be used to identify you. For this reason, we recommend using a Messaging Name that is not in use elsewhere on any internet, social media or other platforms, be they real or virtual. Our Privacy Policy gives full details of how PetsLocated.com protects your personal information.

You can opt-in to receive a free text whenever you get a message through the site's Secure Messaging Service. There is no charge for this service.

Texts will show as coming from 'PetsLocated'. They contain a one-click link direct to your messages on the website. Clicking on the link will log you in to the site automatically. For security reasons the links are time-limited.

To opt-in (or opt-out again), go to the My Details option on the My Account menu when you're logged in.

Don't worry, we will send you an e-mail notification about new messages whether you choose to receive texts or not.

You can register as Animal Welfare Organisation or Vet (i.e. someone dealing with 'Found' pets) without adding a pet. Owners who have lost a pet should register their pet's details at the time of registration.

This website automatically does the matching process for owners of missing pets, thus saving the time and effort of manually searching the site as the number of lost and found pets increases daily. This website continually, automatically matches the lost and found listings against each other and alerts owners by e-mail whenever a potential match is made thus negating the need to do manual searches.

Please note that accounts which have been set up but not had pets added will automatically be deleted after a set period of time.

When you log in to your account there is the option to 'Change your details/password'.

Also, on your My Account page, under the list of pets there is a section 'My Login Details'. You will be able to change your e-mail address, password and other personal details from within that section.

If you wish to completely remove your account from this website, you can do so by going to the My Account page and selecting the option at the bottom of the page.

To keep overheads - and therefore the cost of pet registration - to a minimum, Pets Located is an internet-based company. We don't run a Head Office building as our team work mainly from home, so, unfortunately, we can't provide a central phone number. We are happy to give as much support as people need and if you have a query which isn't answered on this page, you can use the Contact Us page and one of our support team will get back to you as soon as possible.

By providing support by e-mail we can often answer queries quickly and efficiently out of hours as well - which we couldn't do by phone. Click here for our Contact page

No, definitely not. We have a policy of not passing customer details on to any other company. PetsLocated.com Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner as required by the Data Protection Act - registration number Z3159369. We will only send e-mails to you using the e-mail address supplied by you when you register a lost or found pet. Our Privacy Policy gives full details.

We welcome enquiries from the media. Please e-mail our media team for more information:

You are accessing this site from IP Address 3.233.219.103

You are using a screen size of x .

Please send a message to us and we will respond to your query promptly.