Found a Pet? 

Here is what you should do: 

Quickly Reporting the pet to local animal shelters will increase the chance it will be reunited with its family. 

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Even if you are planning on keeping the animal at your house while you look for the owner you will need to make a found animal report with local animals shelters, and have the animal scanned for a microchip at vet office or animal shelter. 

To report a found animal to the Hayward Animal Shelter, please complete this lost/found report and e-mail it to 

Next, try to locate the owner before you bring the animal to a shelter. 

Post a photo and "found pet" ad with FindingRover, Nextdoor, and in local lost and found animal groups on Facebook and other social media.

               Facebook groups and pages:

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                            Hayward Area Lost & Found Pets Facebook group

                            Hayward,CA - Lost Dogs, Cats & Pets Facebook page

                            Lost and Found pets/rescue animals(BAY AREA) Facebook group. 

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NOTE: If you find a healthy cat or large kitten, research shows that putting it back where you found it is the best thing to do. They are likely someone's pet or being taken care of by a person or mother cat. If it is lost, the cat will have a much better chance of finding its way home than the owner finding it at the shelter. If you are certain the cat is stray, consider TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return).

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If you find tiny kittens (smaller than your hand), be absolutely sure they don't have a mom. Kittens need their mother's milk for their best chance of survival.  If the kittens are warm and wiggly/alert, it is very likely mom just stepped out to get food and will be back in a couple of hours.  You can consider doing TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return)with mom and kittens once they are little older.

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If you need to bring the animal into a shelter, which one you go to will be based on where you found the animal. 

Please use the guide below to determine which shelter to bring the animal to. 

You can use Hayward GIS and AlCo Parcel Viewer to help you determine jurisdictions. 

On Hayward GIS, incorporated hayward is shaded beige, unincoporated and non-hayward areas whited out. 

         Animal was Found...                                   Shelter animal should go to...

Incorporated City of Hayward

Hayward Animal Shelter

16 Barnes Court, Hayward CA

(510) 293 - 7200

Unincorporated Hayward

Unincorporated San Leandro

San Lorenzo

Castro Valley

East County Animal Shelter

4695 Gleason Drive, Dublin CA

Shelter: (925) 803 - 7040

Field Services: (510) 667 - 7763

Fremont

Union City

Newark

Incorporated City of San Leandro

Tri-City Animal Shelter

1950 Stevenson Blvd. Fremont CA

(510) 790 - 6640

Oakland

Oakland Animal Services

1101  29th Ave, Oakland

(510) 535 - 5602

Alameda

Alameda Animal Shelter

1590 Fortmann Way, Alameda, CA 

(510) 337 - 8565