FINDING YOUR MISSING PET

Lost and stray dogs and cats picked up in unincorporated St. Charles County, and most municipalities are kenneled at the County Pet Adoption Center. The Center is located at 4850 Mid Rivers Mall Drive in Cottleville. This location is almost directly across from the St. Charles County Community College. (Please click here for a map)

NOTE: Exceptions to the above are animals picked up or surrendered to the City of Wentzville and the City of St. Charles. Both municipalities operate their own animal control programs.

If you have lost a pet please call us at 636-949-PETS (7387) or come to the Pet Adoption Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Although we do take phone calls it is MUCH better if you can come in to look for your pet. Our facility holds over 150 animals and it is often very difficult to be sure whether or not an animal matches a caller's description. Also, during the busiest times of the day it may be several hours before anyone is available to look in the kennel.

The St. Peters Animal Control Program is located in our Pet Adoption Facility and can be reached at 636-949-7354.

You should also call the other programs in the county including the St. Charles Humane Society. The numbers are:

St. Charles City Animal Control 636-949-3395

Wentzville Police Department 636-327-5105

St. Charles Humane Society 636-949-9918

If you are not able to locate your pet, you might consider putting a sign in your yard with a description and offering a reward for its return. Some well-intended people refuse to turn stray animals over to animal control programs and hold them in the hope that they can find its owner. Sometimes they decide to keep it. If a licensed veterinarian has properly vaccinated your pet against rabies, you should have been issued a license tag to affix to your pet's collar or harness. We are required by law to attempt to notify the registered owner when a pet is picked up. The tag number and registration makes that possible. In addition, if someone finds your pet and they want to return it to you, we can contact you if they have a tag number. Collar tags that provide a name and address are available from some veterinarians, pet stores and other locations. These may be helpful.

Unfortunately collars can come off and tags can fall off of collars. Fortunately, there is another effective way to identify your pet. Many veterinarians will microchip your pet. (ALL PETS PLACED BY THE ST. CHARLES COUNTY PET ADOPTION CENTER ARE NOT ONLY SPAYED OR NEUTERED BUT ARE ALSO MICROCHIPPED BEFORE ADOPTION.) This involves inserting a small, non-toxic computer chip under the skin of the animal. The device is NOT powered but passively responds to a scan with a special scanner by sending an echo that displays a number on the scanner. The chip is registered through our facility to the animals owner. The number can be registered in a worldwide database maintained by the chip manufacturer if you pay a registration fee to the company. Most animal control programs and private humane agencies have a scanner and routinely scan incoming animals. If a chip is present and returns a number we can locate you if you have kept your information up to date. You can also register an alternate contact for times you are on vacation. This is one of the best ways of helping us reunite you with your pet. Collars and tags may fall off, but the chip is permanent.

For more detailed information on microchips try this link to AVID: http://www.flex.net/~avid/faq/index.html

If you decide that your pet is worth this expenditure then please contact your veterinarian. If you do not have a veterinarian go here to find a list of veterinarians in St. Charles County.