Found Dog and Cat Advice

The team will ask you for the following information:

• Your name, address and a telephone number you can be contacted on. Please note: we will not give this out to any owner.
• The breed of the dog or cat, its sex, colour, approximate age and size
• If the animal has any form of identification, such as a collar and tag
• When and where you found the dog or cat

The Lost Dogs & Cats Line team will search our database for any dogs or cats that have been reported missing in the same area.  If they have a match, they will let you know straight away and will contact the owner for you.

You should:

• Call your local Animal Warden who may be able to collect the dog, and in some cases the cat, from you.
• If this is not possible, bring the stray dog or cat to us. Our London centre accepts stray dogs and cats 24 hours a day. Old Windsor and Brands Hatch centres accept them between 9am and 5pm. Please phone us before bringing the animal into one of our centres.

If you choose to keep the dog or cat in your home you should do the following:

• Report the dog or cat to your local authority Animal Warden
• Call Battersea's Lost & Found line on 020 7627 9245 so we can search our database for a possible owner.  If we do not find an owner immediately we will keep your report on our database for 28 days and continue searching
• Call all local veterinary surgeries and any other animal rescue organisations in the area to let them know you have the animal
• Take the dog or cat to the local vet, animal hospital or rescue centre to be scanned for a microchip
• Download our Found poster on the right hand side of this page and put it up around the area where you found the lost animal

Please read the following advice if you think you have found a stray cat:

• Avoid feeding cats that come into your garden unless they are clearly underweight
• Cats roam over wide areas so ask your neighbours to see if they know who the cat belongs to
• Call Battersea’s Lost Dogs & Cats Line, as well as other local rescue centres and veterinary clinics to see if anyone has reported a cat missing
• Put a paper collar on the cat asking an owner to contact you if it is their cat.
  Download Lost Cat Tag (247 kb)
• If the cat is approachable, take it to your local vet who will be able to scan it for a microchip
• If you haven’t found an owner within a couple of weeks try and rehome the cat through your local rescue centre
• If you decide to keep the cat make sure you consider the commitment and responsibly of owning a pet.