This is the best step when you find a lost animal or an animal has been hanging around your property.

Taking them to the vet or SPCA means that:

• They can be scanned for a microchip, and if registered, their owner contacted immediately
• They can receive medical treatment if they are injured or sick
• The vet or SPCA are often also in a position to provide care and shelter for the animal if their owner is not immediately found

LostPet (previously lostpet.co.nz) is a free to use lost and found pet service. Creating a found pet listing is easy! You do not need to log in OR create an account to do this.

To view or create LostPet listings - click here.

For help with creating a Found LostPet listing, click here.

There are other NZ missing pet websites and Facebook groups too, as well as community groups specific to your area where you can create a listing for the found pet.

Be sure to regularly check lost pet websites and Facebook groups, as the person who owns the animal may not see your listing.

We recommend to create a LostPet listing THEN share your listing to Facebook as:

1. 1. There are many Facebook pages and groups
   2. Facebook posts are superseded by newer posts and are not easily searchable
   3. Once the Found pet listing on LostPet is no longer published, an alert will show which reads 'this listing has been removed or expired' when the link in your Facebook post is clicked. This means you do not need to update all the various places you posted on Facebook.

Asking your neighbours if they own the animal or if they know who does can speed up the process of reuniting an animal with its owner. 

Well loved cats may still wander a surprising distance from their home. To confirm whether it is a stray cat or an adventurer, you can put a paper collar around its neck and see if anyone responds.

In conjunction with the Wellington SPCA, we've created this downloadable template for a collar which you can use.

Cat collar template with instructions