LOST AND FOUND
Lost a Pet?
Losing a pet is stressful. To increase the chances of a happy ending, the Calgary Humance Society urges you to take immediate action to recover your pet. Any delay may significantly decrease your chances of the safe recovery of your pet. Don’t wait a few days to see if he’ll come home, start looking right away. We can help you through it. Call us at 403-723-6025. We take lost reports for dogs over the phone. However because of the large number of cats in our facility, we ask that you come down in person to look for your lost cat.
The Calgary Humane Society has a program to help you if you've lost a pet. PetLynx is an online 24 hour service that lists found pets so you can access the service any time of day. The Calgary Humane Society is the first animal rescue organization using the PetLynx system which will soon be used by rescue groups across the country.
If you don't have internet access, visit our shelter daily to see if your animal has been brought to us. While at the shelter, you can check on the PetLynx site for any found reports that match your pet.
Step-by-Step Checklist
- Look around your neighbourhood right away, check with neighbours, the mail carrier and children playing in the area. Ask for home owners to check garages, under decks, around sheds and greenhouses etc.
- Register your pet on PetLynx.
- Contact City of Calgary Animal Services at 311 as they house stray dogs and cats that have been trapped under the cat control bylaw. Their address is 2201 Portland Street SE. You can also visit their website.
- Call all vet clinics in your area, and the emergency clinics in the city - Animals Care Emergency at 403-770-1340, the Calgary North Animal Hospital at 403-277-0135, the C.A.R.E. Centre at 403-520-8387, McKnight 24 hour at 403-457-0911 and Fish Creek at 403-873-1700.
- Place a lost ad with: The Calgary Herald 403-235-0511, The Calgary Sun 403-250-4222, or Shaw Cable 403-716-6010. Check daily found ads in both newspapers.
- Put up posters in your neighbourhood and deliver flyers door to door with a description of your pet.
- Contact City of Calgary at 311 if you suspect your pet may have been hit by a car.
- Other animal rescue organizations for you to contact include:
- ARF 403-243-1910
- Pound Rescue 403-938-4890
- Heaven Can Wait 403-601-2520
- MEOW 403-230-6033
- Feline Rescue foundation of Alberta 403-282-5256.
- If it's a ferret you've lost, call Ferret Rescue and Education Society at 403-567-3737.
- Don't give up! We have returned lost pets to their owners after months, and even years, of separation!
Found a Pet?
So, a stray animal has decided you can rescue him and you don't know quite what to do. We can help! A sick or injured stray should be brought to the Calgary Humane Society or to a vet clinic right away. There is no charge to you for bringing a stray to the shelter or a clinic. If you have found a mother and a litter or an orphaned litter, contact us at 403-205-4455 for advice before taking action. Do not move the litter unless they are in immediate danger.
The Calgary Humane Society has a program in place to help people who have found a pet. You can access lost pet information twenty-four hours a day without having to call us and wait on the phones. Please register any pet you find (free of charge) on PetLynx. This site automatically matches up lost and found animals. So, if you enter a found report for a male German shepherd type dog found in Shawnessy and someone has lost a pet that matches that description, the system will give you the information you need to contact the owner and get the pet home. Please follow the steps below when you have found a lost pet.
Locating the Owner
- Check to see if the animal has any form of identification - city license, tattoo, rabies tag, personalized identification tag, or microchip.
- Register the animal on PetLynx.
- Place a found ad in the newspaper (often a free service) and check the lost advertisements.
- Post notices in the area where the animal was found with a description or photo and information about how you can be contacted.
- Ask neighbours if they recognize the cat or dog you have found, or if they know of a household that recently lost a pet. If someone claims to be the animal's owner, insist on identification and proof of ownership before releasing him.
Bringing the Animal In
Before bringing strays to the Calgary Humane Society, do a search on PetLynx. There may already be a record of the lost pet and you may be matched with the owners right away, saving the animal a trip to the shelter. If there is no match, please bring the animal to the appropriate shelter. If the dog was found within in the city limits of Calgary, you must bring him to City Animal Services at 2201 Portland Street SE. If the dog was found outside the city limits of Calgary, bring him to our shelter at 4455 - 110 Avenue SE. Animal Admissions hours are 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. on weekdays, and 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on weekends. Stray cats come to our shelter at 4455 - 110 Avenue SE. To help us serve you and the animal best, call us at 403-723-6025 to book an appointment.
If you are unable to bring the animal to a shelter, consider bringing him to your local vet clinic. There is no fee to you, and our drivers and the City by-law officers pick up from clinics. If transportation is absolutely impossible - for stray dogs contact City Animal Services 311, and for stray cats contact us at 403-205-4455 to arrange for a pick-up.
Keeping the Animal
Many people who find lost pets would like to keep them. The Calgary Humane Society has a legal holding period for strays that is set by the Animal Protection Act of Alberta or a municipal bylaw. After we have held stray animals for the legal holding period, they become our property and we are able to adopt them to new families.
There is no legal holding period for individuals. In fact, if you were to simply keep a stray you've found, you are vulnerable to legal action if the owner should come forward. In order to avoid this situation, we would recommend that you bring the animal to us or have Animal Services pick the animal up (if it's a dog) and state that you would like to adopt the animal. Then, after the holding period, you would do the adoption.
This is the only way we can assure you that you have legal ownership. The same procedure applies if the animal has been abandoned. Please don't make the assumption that the pet you have found isn't being missed by a frantic family. Take the steps under "Locating the Owner" before deciding you want the animal and make sure you register the animal as found on PetLynx.