Lost & Found Pets
Losing your pet is a very traumatic experience. It’s important to stay calm so that you can search for your pet and hopefully be reunited. There is a number of steps you should take on the first day your pet goes missing and if your pet is not immediately found, keep repeating some of the steps such as regularly checking Toronto Animal Services website and updating posters and flyers. Don’t give up looking for your pet too early!
- As soon as you notice your dog or cat missing, immediately check around your home and neighbourhood.
- Ask friends and neighbours if they have seen your pet and if so, when and where?
- If your pet is not found after your initial search, contact Toronto Animal Services at (416) 338-PAWS (7297) and file a lost animal report.
- Be prepared to provide a description of your pet, licence number and tattoo or microchip number is applicable.
Visit all Animal Care Centres in person. Only you can identify your missing pet. Make sure you also check the local veterinary clinics and humane societies.
If we don't have your pet
If your pet is not located at one of our Animal Care Centres, you should immediately do the following:
Post flyers in the area where your pet was last seen and around your neighbourhood in as many of the following locations as possible:
- Veterinarian offices
- Animal Shelters
- Supermarkets
- Bulletin boards
- Distribute flyers to delivery people in your area.
- If someone responds to your flyer, having possibly found your pet, check it out even if it seems too far away to possibly be your pet. Animals have been found miles from where they were originally lost.
Once your pet has been found, remember to do the following:
- Contact and inform Toronto Animal Services.
- Remove all flyers you have posted.
If your pet is still missing after 24 hours, visit our website section on lost pets to search through the photos of lost pets in our shelters. (the pictures are updated frequently throughout the day)
Every day lost pets arrive at Toronto Animal Services. When you are checking our website and you see an animal that matches your pet, click on the picture of the animal to obtain the phone number of the Animal Centre where it is housed.
Animal information is updated every two hours during hours of operation. Lost pets are kept for five full working days, not including the day the animal came into an Animal Shelter, before it may be placed for adoption. We recommend that you visit the nearest Animals Care Centres every 48 hours.
I want to check lost animals.
Found Pets
If you have found a lost dog or cat wearing a City of Toronto tag, contact our office at 416-338-PAWS (7297). Toronto Animal Services staff are available to check our database to locate the registered owner, seven days per week from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm
If you have found an animal that is not wearing any identification (eg. Tag), please bring the animal to one of our Animal Care Centres. We will scan the pet for a microchip which may provide information on the registered owner and we can check our lost animal reports. In addition, we will be able to place the animal in public view. If you are unable to bring the animal to one of our Animal Care Centres, call 416-338-PAWS (7297) to arrange for the animal to be picked up by an Animal Care and Control Officer.