Lost pet help in Oshawa, Ontario

Who to call first in Oshawa

Pickup and bylaw enforcement
Oshawa Animal Services, with Oshawa Municipal Law Enforcement, 905-436-3311
Where a picked-up animal is held
Oshawa Animal Services, 905-436-3311

The city runs its own animal services, which it describes as providing a safe and warm space for lost and found animals within Oshawa. The Ontario SPCA Durham Region Animal Centre is a separate regional organisation — its own FAQ asks finders to contact municipal animal control first.

Dogs and cats are not always the same answer. Dogs, cats and ferrets are all licensed by the City, and a licensed pet that strays gets one free ride home a year. Unowned cats, though, go through a volunteer trap-neuter-return-manage programme monitored by Animal Services and Municipal Law Enforcement rather than routine impound.

Whether officers will attend a healthy loose cat, and whether this line is answered after hours, are not stated on the City’s own animal services pages — ask when you call.

Checked against the City of Oshawa’s own animal services page on 4 October 2026 — read it yourself. Services and contracts change — confirm before you travel.

One organisation in this directory names Oshawa in the area it covers: Oshawa Animal Services. One more covers Oshawa as part of a wider region.

Between them they are municipal animal services and shelters and humane societies.

Further down the page, two organisations cover Ontario as a whole and five work Canada-wide.

Opening hours, intake practices and how each organisation wants to hear from you are set by that organisation, not by this directory — check its own page or call before you travel.

In Oshawa 1

These organisations name Oshawa in the area they cover.

Covering Oshawa as part of a wider area 1

Covering all of Ontario 2

Canada-wide 5

Registries and national bodies that work anywhere in the country.

Nearest emergency vets 1

No emergency veterinary clinic in Oshawa is listed here. These are the nearest ones in the verified set, and they are in Whitby — a different municipality, not Oshawa.

Emergency capacity and availability change — phone before travelling.

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