Finding Lost Pet    

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As the pet owning culture grows in Korea, more and more services are available to pet owners, including systems for finding lost pets (primarily cats and dogs).

If your pet is lost, you have a number of options available to you.

1. You can post flyers with your pet's photo and your contact details around your neighbourhood. You might find it helpful to put the phone number of a Korean-speaking friend or colleague, if you don't speak the language yourself.

2. You can check with the local veterinary clinics directly - by either telephoning them or stopping by. Again, you'll likely need help from a Korean speaker. The vets are usually very good about posting your flyer on their bulletin board.

3.  In 2009, the Korean government (Ministry of Knowledge Economy) launched an integrated system called "Animal Protection Management System" (APMS) to help find lost animals around Korea. The system is in Korean only, but even if you don't have a Korean speaker who can help you navigate, you'll be able to do a lot on your own with the Google translation function.

When you click on the APMS, you'll see the photo of a lost animal. Click on the heading beside the picture 욕기동물공고. There you'll see a list of animals that have been sorted by city, district, found date, breed and even ID chip number. You can also input the date when your pet was lost and/or the area and see what comes up. The system is not yet complete and not all cities/districts are inputing information, but hopefully most will begin doing so soon.

Found pets are often taken to local vets some of whom may charge you a boarding fee.

4. Gandong-gu is one of the areas that has it's own site for lost pets. This is a very good system as ther are generally pictures of the pets that have been found that you can see right away. Easier for those who don't speak Korean. On the left side of your screen, you'll see a list of vet clinics that participate in the program - the number of pets each has found is posted as well.

5. You can also visit the websites of the following animal rescue organisations:
Cat Adoption in Korea    
Nabiya
Animal Rescue Korea (ARK)
Busan Abandoned Pets Sancturary (BAPS)
Korea Animal Protection Society (KAPS)


Editor's Note: The information above is based on the information K4E has available at the time of writing.  K4E would appreciate your input if you know of any other pet-finding websites such as the one in Gandong-gu or if you notice that any of the above information is either out-of-date or incorrect. You can contact us at info@korea4expats.com.