Lost and Found Companions

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.
  • Email or call us at (403) 938-4890. We need tattoo and microchip information, your animals license number if available, a detailed description, and a photo if possible. You'll need to visit or contact your shelter regularly as new animals arrive all the time and often the description you gave may not be enough to make the connection.
  • Contact the Calgary Humane Society at (403) 250-4455, located at 4455, 110 Avenue SE, Calgary, AB, Canada. Someone from Calgary may have found your pet and taken it to the Calgary shelter, visit them too if at all possible.
  • 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 - Calgary North Animal Hospital at 277-0135, Calgary Animal Emergency Clinic at 269-7822 and Shawnessy Pet Hospital at 254-5900.
  • Place a lost ad with: The Calgary Herald (235-0511), The Calgary Sun (250-4222), the Bargain Finder, Shaw Cable (716-6010) or the Western Wheel (938-6397)
  • 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 (243-1910); Pound Rescue (938-4890); Heaven Can Wait (601-2520); MEOW (230-6033) and FRFA (282-5256).
  • If it's a ferret you've lost, call Ferret Rescue and Education Society at 483-6111.
  • Don’t give up! We have returned lost pets to their owners after months, and even years, of separation.

If you find an Animal

If the animal you have found is sick or injured, call us at 938-4890 and we will direct you to our veterinarian and take over from there.

Locating an Owner

  • Check to see if the animal has any form of identification.
  • For Okotoks: If the animal has a tattoo (which can be located in the right ear or on the flank) record the tattoo number and look it up on the dog “owner” search on the virtual Okotoks Town Hall
  • A rabies tag will give you the name of the animal's veterinary clinic to call.
  • A personalized identification tag should list the name, phone number and address of the owner for you to contact.
  • Lost pets may also have a form of identification that you can't see - a microchip. It is very important to take the animal to a Humane Society or a veterinary clinic to be scanned.
  • Check inside the animal's collar for a hand written name, phone number and address.
  • Register the animal by calling us at 938-4890 and the Calgary Humane Society at 250-7912. We will need a detailed description of the pet.
  • Search the PetLynx web site to see if someone has lost an animal with a similar description or to post a found animal report.
  • 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 neighbors if they recognize the animal 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.

Keeping the Animal
Many people who find lost pets would like to keep them.
Pound Rescue 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.

 

Back to top