FAQ

It costs you nothing. Our website and online missing pet database is and has always been free for all to use. Once your pet is registered Auto-Match will set to work to find potential matches in your area, we will notify you by email at a frequency of your choosing with potential matches. We will also notify our Pet Watch community in your area about your missing pet too.

Although the website is free to use we would be grateful if you would consider making a donation. Donations enable us to maintain our database and develop our services, meaning we can reunite more pets than ever. Our expert team are on hand 7 days a week to provide guidance and support should you need it.

Sadly no, unfortunately we just do not have the resources to do this. Our website is free for all to use. It should take no longer than 10 minutes for you to register your pet with us. It would take us a lot longer because we don't know you, the area where you live or the details of your pet.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, we have in the past helped people to register who are visually impaired for example. We want our services to be accessible to everyone so if you are really struggling to get your pet registered then give us a call.

It's easy to help support our work - see here for more details.

In order to make sure we are sending emails to the right place and to protect our users privacy, we require you to verify your email address. Verification only takes a couple of seconds and just requires the click of a link.

Until your account has been verified, you will not receive New Message Waiting, Auto-Match or Pet Watch emails from us.

You can verify your email address at any time - when you first sign up you will be emailed a link to click. If you haven't received the email, please check your junk / spam folders. When you try to login and you havn't verified your email address yet you will be giving the option to resend the email.

Yes. Users of our website can message each other via the website, safely and securely free of charge. When a user messages you they will be able to see the details of the pet you have registered (if applicable) and your username. We will never disclose your personal information to anyone. Of course you can choose to send your own contact details to other users if you wish.

See our Help and Advice page for information on staying safe when responding to potential sightings.

At such a worrying time, we understand that waiting for a reply is difficult and often frustrating. We pass on messages promptly from user to user, once they have been vetted by us to ensure they are legitimate. Most users will reply within 1 - 24 hours. If you haven't heard back from the other person after 48 hours then please drop us a line and we will contact them for you, either by email or phone dependant upon which details they have submitted to us.

You can update your email address through your dashboard here.

You can reset your password here.

No. Members of the Pet Watch Community who have asked to be notified of missing and found pets in their area. Some may message you with advice, offer to help if you need it or quite simply just look out for your pet during their day whilst it is missing. Our messaging system is safe and secure, none of your details are ever disclosed to anyone unless you choose to send them yourself.

We will never disclose your personal details to 3rd parties.

Try and take a few photos of the pet and upload them to our system for free here.

If possible, contain the pet safely and securely and take it to your local vet. A vet will be able to scan the pet for a microchip, and administer any treatment should the animal require it. This will not cost you anything. If the vet can locate a microchip it will mean that they can contact the owner immediately in most cases.

With any animal that is lost it is important to remember that they may be extremely frightened and disorientated. You should always approach any animal that you do not know with care and you should stop if you feel that the animal is becoming distressed or you feel uncomfortable.

Quite often it is best to stand still and let the animal come to you. It is not a good idea to chase a pet that you find, as they can often run further away and become lost again or they may run dangerously into a road. If an animal is moving away from you as you approach it, it is best to stop, stand back, take some photographs on your phone if you can, and call in reinforcements whilst observing the animal from a distance.

See our Help and Advice pages for more information.

The law requires that you report finding a dog to your local dog warden. Here is a link you may find useful.

It is important to register your pet as missing with us as soon as possible, please do so here. Our website and online database of missing and found pets is completely free for all to use.

As well as our Auto-Match and Pet Watch notification network (part of the free services you will receive when you register your pet) we can also help you further. For information on the additional services we can provide please see the Specialist Publicity and Missing Pet Search Team pages.

We also have a Help and Advice page that you can read through here.

You can contact us, please make sure your pet is registered with us first, so we have all the details we need to hand.

You can find out more about our Specialist Publicity here. It is normally comprised of posters, leaflets and social media but we can also help with local radio and newspaper appeals too. We can tailor your campaign to ensure you get exactly what you need, whether you live in a small village or a big city. Please call us so we find out more about where your pet went missing from, and we'll be able to advise on a campaign that is perfect for you.

If your pet is insured, your policy may include help with this. We work with most pet insurance companies on a daily basis, which means we may be able to provide a specialist publicity campaign for your missing pet, at no cost to you and with no excess for you to pay. Let us know if you are insured, and who with and we will let you know how we work with them to help you.

Our Specialist Publicity is sent via courier over night for next day delivery. Orders placed before 3.30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday should all be with you next day.

At the moment orders placed on Saturday's and Sunday's are delivered on Tuesday. If you choose to order a campaign over the weekend you haven't got to worry about they delay in receiving it as we can send you digital documents to get started. We start the social aspects of the campaign straight away too so no crucial time in your search is wasted.

If you have booked a search the team will bring your Specialist Publicity with them, or we can send it to you ahead of search day so you can get started.

The cost of the Missing Pet Search Team varies dependant on where you live and whether your pet is insured. Please register your pet with us here and give us a call as soon as you can if you would like a quote for the search team to come to you. Our search team will be deployed within 24 hours of your booking in most cases. You can read more about them here.

Yes our Missing Pet Search Team are based in the West Midlands and they carry out searches UK wide.

In most cases we can deploy a team next day, wherever you are in the UK. For more details about the search team click here. When you ring us for a quote we will be able to let you know exactly what day the Search Team are available to come to you.

At Animal Search UK we are constantly evaluating the services we provide, in order to make them the best they can be. We'd love to hear any feedback you may have for us, please use the form on the Contact Us page to let us know what we are doing right or where you feel we could improve.

The Animal Search UK website sends various emails out to its users who have selected to receive them - Pet Watch Alerts (notifications of lost pets in your area), Auto-Match Alerts (potential matches for a case you have open with us) and New Message Received Alerts, which let you know that another user has messaged you directly via the website.

When logged in to the website you can choose to amend your email notifications at any time as below:

Pet Watch Alerts - When logged in select the Pet Watch Tab on your user dashboard, here you can amend the radius for which you receive alerts, amend the frequency of emails or stop the emails all together. It is worth noting that if no pet's have been registered as missing in your area, since your last notification, we wont send you an email.

Auto-Match Alerts - When logged in select the Pet in the My Pets Tab on your user dashboard, select edit, scroll down to the bottom of the case details. Here you will be able to adjust Auto-Match frequency and radius of results displayed to you. Auto-Match emails, and their frequency, have to be adjusted on a case by case basis. For example, you may have a lost dog that you wish to receive Auto-Match Alerts about daily, but you also may have reported a sighting of a deceased cat 6 months ago that you wish to receive Auto-Match Alerts for weekly and so on.

New Message Alerts - When logged in select the Edit These Details button on the Welcome Tab on your user dashboard, here you will be able to adjust how often you are emailed when you have received a new message via the website. Upon creating your account this will have been defaulted to 'Every time I get sent a message' to ensure no crucial sightings or information that is sent to you is missed.

From time to time we send out emails to all of our users, it could be that we have launched a fantastic Pet Watch member Perk that we want to share with you or it could be that we need to send out an important communication to all of our users about changes or updates to the website. If you do not wish to receive these emails then please click here.

If you wish to deactivate your account with us altogether please contact us, stating that you wish your account to be deactivated. Accounts are usually deactivated the same day, but it can take up to 48 hours when we are busy. Deactivating your account will mean that any open cases you have with us are closed automatically. You can reactivate a deactivated account, and reopen closed cases, in the future should you need to use our services again.