Vancouver Animal Shelter (City of Vancouver Animal Services)

The City of Vancouver's own animal services and shelter at 1280 Raymur Avenue — where a stray dog or small animal picked up in Vancouver is held. The City states this shelter does not accept cats.

What to do here

If you have lost a dog in Vancouver, this is the first call: Animal Services enforces the Animal Control Bylaw, operates the shelter and handles dog licensing, and the City states that a loose licensed dog is returned to its owner while an unlicensed one is placed in kennels until the owner claims it. A current licence is what turns a trip to the shelter into a phone call.

If you have lost a CAT, this is not the place. The City's own lost-pets page directs stray cat reports to the BC SPCA, and its adoption page says plainly that the shelter does not accept cats — the animals it holds are dogs plus small animals such as birds, rabbits, rodents and reptiles. For a missing cat in Vancouver, call the BC SPCA, and ask about Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association too.

Visit in person as well as phoning. A description over the phone is much weaker than your own eyes on the kennels, and the shelter is open to the public daily.

Compiled from the City of Vancouver's own animal services, lost pets and adoption pages, checked 4 October 2026. vancouver.ca blocks automated fetching, so the wording was read through search-backend extraction of those official URLs rather than a direct fetch. Confirm hours by phone. Last checked 4 October 2026. Details change without notice — confirm anything you are about to rely on.

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Also covering British Columbia

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One organisation is never the whole search

A pet is found by whoever happens to be nearby, so the shelter, the city, the registry and the local search groups each hold a different piece. Work the list rather than one entry on it.

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