Instructions

What to do when you have found a cat

Who can search the register

Anyone has access to searching for a tattooed or chipped cat in the Danish Cat Register, but it's not possible to search for details on owner. You can contact owner online via the cat search, or contact The Danish Cat Register, call +45 70 27 04 47. Please have tattoo or chip number ready.

The following have full access to search the register:

Authorities

• Police
• Municipalities
• Rescue

Others

• Vets

Reading an ear tattoo

In order to find the cat's owner, it is important to read the cat's ear tattoo correctly. An ear tattoo typically consists of three letters and three numbers e.g. XZX223.

This system has been used since registration of tattooed cats was systematised in 1984. However, since then a few vets have bought ear tattoo markers that have 3 letters and 4 numbers, which look like this: FZX0017.

It can be hard to read a strange cat’s ear tattoo. In some cases it may require two people. If the tattoo is unclear, try putting oil/grease on the cat’s ear and then shining a torch behind the ear to see. The tattoo most often consists of six marks. If you cannot read all of the tattoo, use a question mark (?) for any missing letters or numbers, e.g. AS?62?.

A number of cats have a tattoo in both ears, where the vet will have positioned them such that the tattoo in either ear is the opposite direction to the other one. This can help to combine letters and numbers from both ears to get to the right code.

If reading the tattoo is completely impossible, if the cat is too restless for example, take it to your nearest vet.

If you find a dead, tattooed cat, it is important to inform the owner, so that the owner is not left worrying about what has happened to their cat. You can contact owner online or call The Danish Cat Register on +45 70 27 04 47 and give us the cat’s tattoo code, and details of where you found it. The cat can also be chipped. The chip is read by a scanner at the vet. If you find a stray cat, which has been killed in a traffic accident on a public highway, you generally need to contact the Municipality’s Technical Administration or the Park and Road department, to remove the cat.

N.B. More and more cats are being chipped rather than tattooed. Chips can only be read by a scanner at e.g. the vet or at an animal rescue centre.