Found Pets

How to help a pet that you have found

Have you found a stray animal and aren’t sure what to do? Most of the time, with just a bit of effort, people who find lost pets can easily reunite them with their family by staying near where the animal was found or using social media. Here are a few tips on how you can best help a lost animal find their way back home.

Found Pet Tips

• Check to see if they need medical attention, if so, take them to a veterinarian clinic for treatment. If you are unable to do so, please bring the animal to Denver Animal Shelter.
• Check for tags.
  • Personal ID tag: Call the phone number or take animal to address listed.
  • Denver License/Pet Passport: Visit https://www.petdata.com/for-pet-owners/den/license-online and use the “Search a Tag” box on the lower left.
  • Rabies tag: Call the clinic or shelter listed on the rabies tag.
• Get the animal scanned for a microchip (for free).
  • Local veterinary clinic
  • Local animal shelter
  • If the pet has a microchip, trace the tag number using the Universal Microchip Lookup Tool

• Make a found animal post online:

  • Nextdoor
  • Neighbors by Ring
  • Denver Lost Pets Facebook Group
  • Colorado Lost or Found Pets Facebook Group
  • Pawboost
  • Petco Love Lost
  • Craigslist
  • 24Pet Connect (formerly PetHarbor

Our Doors Are Always Open

As a reminder, Denver Animal Shelter is an open admissions shelter, which means we never turn away an animal for any reason. If you have found a lost pet in the City and County of Denver, you are welcome to bring the animal to the Denver Animal Shelter 24-hours a day. After regular business hours, the Denver Animal Shelter provides night drop-off kennels for found pets. The night drop-off has a dedicated entrance, located to the left of the shelter’s “Lost and Found” entrance.

If you have found a lost pet within the City and County of Denver and would like the animal picked up by an Animal Protection Officer, contact dispatch at 720-913-2080. Please note that requests to pick-up strays are dispatched at a lower priority than emergent and urgent calls, which could result in an extended wait. Officers are not dispatched to pick up strays after 8 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. on weekends.

If you do not want to wait for an Animal Protection Officer, please consider dropping the animal off at Denver Animal Shelter or Denver Dumb Friends League. As an alternative, many emergency veterinarians will also accept found pets as a gesture of goodwill – before arriving, please make sure to call them to ask if they can offer assistance.