I have lost my pet, what do I do?

You must personally come to the Durham County shelter during normal business hours to look for your lost pet. We cannot guarantee that the front desk staff or volunteers who are answering the telephone are aware of every animal in the shelter. In addition, the breed may be identified differently than the one you have identified for that animal.

Since we average 20 animals coming to the shelter every day we must remind you that you are responsible for personally coming into the shelter and identifying the animal.

Should you find your animal here, you will be required to provide proof of ownership.

If you have lost a cat, please don’t give up– cats most often stay close to the house.  Sadly, stray cats are hardly ever reclaimed at the shelter so be sure to check here as well!

If you do not find your animal at the shelter after you have looked here we recommend you leave detailed information in our “lost animal” book. Please bring a PHOTO and description of your pet.  APS staff and volunteers will do their best to look for your lost animal amongst those at the shelter based on the information you leave in our book. Even with a lost report on file, it is still the responsibility of the owner to continue to visit the shelter to verify that an animal is/isn’t at the shelter.

Stray animals at the Durham County Animal Shelter are also tracked on Pet Harbor (a website which automatically uploads information about animals at the shelter).  You may use this valuable tool for free but again we remind you that nothing is a substitute for personally checking at the shelter.  Please note that Pet Harbor does not currently show photographs — we hope to add this feature soon– only written descriptions.

Click here to use Pet Harbor to locate your lost pet.

Best of luck, we do hope that you find your lost pet very soon.