• Home  /  Humane Law & Rescue  /  Lost & Found

Lost & Found

Lost Pets

Losing a pet is a terrifying experience that we hope you never find yourself in. However, if you are separated from your pet make sure you know what your parish’s stray hold period is!

Each parish is required to hold stray animals for a certain number of days. New Orleans is 3 days and Plaquemines Parish is 5 days. After this time your pet is considered the property of the shelter it is at. To view other parish stray hold periods visit our animal laws page.

• File a lost report with nearby animal shelters and vet offices.
• Visit your local shelters to see if your pet is there.
• Call your microchip company and make sure your information is current.
• Search your neighborhood. Take daily walks and check possible hiding places, notify mail carriers and neighbors.
• Post lost pet flyers around your neighborhood.
• Post lost pet ads on places like Nextdoor, Craigslist and lost pet groups on Facebook.

Found Pet

If you find a pet or stray there are two options available to you. You can either keep the animal and commit to help finding it’s owner OR bring the animal to the official animal shelter in the parish where you found it.

Regardless of which decision you make, here are some things you can do to help reunite the pet with their owner:

• File a found report with nearby animal shelters and vet offices.
• Get the animal scanned for a microchip. Any vet office or animal shelter can assist you with this.
• Make flyers and post them where you found the animal.
• Post found ads on places like Nextdoor, Craigslist and lost pet groups on Facebook.

There is no fee to bring lost pets to us from New Orleans or Plaquemines Parish. While we encourage you to bring pets from other parishes to the parish shelter where you found them, we will never turn a pet away. However, we do charge a $35 fee for pets brought to us from other parishes.

Reclaiming Your Pet

If we’ve found your pet there are a few steps you need to follow to reclaim him/her.

• Bring proof of ID.
• Proof of ownership is required. (i.e. vet records with your pets name and description and your contact information, microchip identification) 
• Please be aware that no animal shelter may release an animal without current proof of rabies within the past 12 months, so be sure to bring your pet’s vaccination records.
• There will be a fee to reclaim your pet based on how long your pet was with us. This helps cover the cost for housing and caring your pet. Fees vary depending on your pet’s spay/neuter status, vaccinations and the nature of the intake.