Nearly one million animals go missing in Canada each year, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). But that statistic doesn’t account for how many are found.
Wherever there are roaming pets, there are people that will rise to the occasion and return them to their owners.
Within Calgary, many lost pets end up under the care of the City of Calgary’s Animal Services. Outside city limits, they are handled by the Calgary Humane Society.
“Everything we do is to help the animals, but to help the people as well,” said Tara Lowes, the leader of animal care and pet licensing at the Animal Services Center.
Animal Services primarily deals with cats and dogs, but in a pinch, they are sometimes forced to branch out. During 2013 floods, they had to take care of two pot-bellied pigs from the Calgary Zoo.
“They’re huge, and you had to be very careful with how you woke them up in the morning because they would turn aggressive on you,” Lowes said.
Above all, Animal Services seeks to reunite pets with their owners. According to Lowes, 61 per cent of the dogs are reunited, compared to 24 per cent for cats.
If their owners are never found, animals are assessed with the goal of adoption.
Microchips and licenses are key in making sure that lost pets are returned as soon as possible. Microchips are not required, but owners may face fines if their pet is found unlicensed.
“It seriously saves a lot of animals. Most of the animals that are coming here don’t have identification,” said Lowes.
Through their Pet Drive Home Program, Animal Services officers are able to immediately return lost pets to their owners when found, permitted that the pets have identification.
Under the Responsible Pet Ownership bylaw, when animals are turned into the Animal Services Center with ID they are held for at least 10 days to give owners a chance to retrieve them. If an animal does not have ID, they are held for a minimum of four days.
“But in that time, we are researching the internet,” Lowes said.
Animal Services often uses online resources to connect owners with pets that end up in their care.
One such resource is the YYC Pet Recovery page on Facebook, which serves as a community hub for people to share posts about their lost pets and seek advice.
Page administrators can use the posts to contact and notify owners when their pets are found.
“Sometimes you’ve contacted us, and almost that same minute, we’ve got a contact from someone who has seen your dog or found your dog,” said Sheila Nixon, a senior administrator for the page.
Some lost pets are harder to track down than others. Much like Animal Services, YYC Pet Recovery’s success rate of reuniting cats is much lower than with dogs.
“If you see a stray dog trotting down the street, you don’t assume that it’s a dog that lives outside,” Nixon said. “But when people see a cat just sort of hanging out somewhere, they think, ‘Oh, it’s a cat that [it’s] owners let outside.’”
Letting pets roam around the neighbourhood is against the Responsible Pet Ownership bylaw and may net owners a fine. Roaming animals are at risk from fast-moving vehicles. wildlife and contagious diseases.
The page organizes lost pets into three types of photo albums: lost, sighted, and reunited.
Approximately 1400 pets were recorded as ‘reunited’ in 2024, but the page only sorts them into these albums when they have been lost for over 24 hours.
The true number of reunited pets is likely much higher.
“Just to guess, I would say it’s going to be between 4,000 and 5,000 animals reunited last year,” Nixon said.
In comparison, only 65 dogs and 491 cats were never reunited. Since those animals could still be found, their photos remain in the ‘lost’ or ‘sighted’ albums.
Though the page can be a valuable asset, not all owners have success. Users should also be wary of potential scams when posting them online.
Some scammers may pose as a pet’s owner and try to claim someone else’s pet. Others will offer to track a lost pet’s microchip or monitor the area with a drone, for a fee.
“You send them money and you never hear from them again,” said Nixon.
Page administrators recommend asking for photo identification when returning a lost pet and then meeting in a public location.
Although the page plays less of a direct role in finding lost pets, it’s always a worthwhile resource for distraught pet owners.
“I’ll tell you, the relief for that family that knows their precious dog has been found and is safe is incredible,” Nixon said.
