(If you lost a pet click here.)

Have you ever come across a stray dog or cat and wondered what you should do? Chase it down? Call the police? While these might seem like good ideas, you may be endangering the pet or loosing precious time by calling the wrong numbers.

Our shelter handles lost and found pets in the seven cities we service: Pasadena, South Pasadena, La Canada-Flintridge, Arcadia, San Marino, Glendale and Sierra Madre. We do not take animals in from other cities outside of our service area. If you have found a pet outside of our service area, please call our main office to find out which shelter services that area, or try our Los Angeles area Shelter Listings.

Stray Dog Roaming:
If you see a dog animal running loose, the safest thing to do is call your local Animal Control facility.  Chasing it may cause it to panic the animal and dart out into traffic and may cause more harm than good.  Note as many characteristics of the dog such as color, size and breed), the exact location, cross streets, and WHICH DIRECTION the animal is moving, and call the local Animal Control facility. For Pasadena, South Pasadena, La Canada/Flintridge, Arcadia, San Marino, Glendale and Sierra Madre call us at 626-792-7151.

Stray Animal Confined
If you have a stray or abandoned animal safely in your custody (safely confined), you have two options. You may call the shelter and an officer will pickup the animal (wait time will vary depending on the time of day and availability of field staff at the time of the call) or you can bring it to the shelter that services the area in which the pet was found.  An owner may be searching for that lost pet, and the longer you hold on to a pet, the less likely the owner will be looking for it in the shelter. In the cities we service, it is required by law that found animals are either brought to the shelter or called in for a pick-up.

At the Pasadena Humane Society, if you want to be listed as the first person interested in adopting or being "last resort" (adopting if no one else does) the animal you turn in (after it has been held for the legal stray period and made available for adoption), you must complete our adoptions counseling process.

After the pet you found is at the shelter, you can still help try to locate its owner:

1. Prepare a flyer giving only a physical description of the pet and the shelter's telephone number. Distribute copies widely. (You may want to check the legality of posting on public property). As you distribute the posters, remember to look for lost flyers that the owner may have posted.
2. Check the lost and found classified ads in all of your local newspapers for a lost ad about the pet.
3. Call the Petfinders Lost Pet Service at 800-666-5678, and they will do a computer search to determine if the pet has been reported lost to us within 60 miles of where you found it.
4. Check our Lost & Found Pet links for more resources.
   

If you have any questions about lost or found pets, call our main office at 626-792-7151 x100