Our mission

Why Lost.ca exists

When a pet goes missing, the first 24 hours matter most. The earlier a lost animal is reported and the more people who hear about it, the better the chance of a reunion. Yet most Canadian owners still scramble across Facebook groups, neighbourhood apps, shelter hotlines, and paper flyers in those critical hours, with no single place to report, search, and match.

Lost.ca is built around one simple idea: a single place where lost-pet posts and found-pet sightings sit side by side, searchable in every Canadian city, open to anyone with a phone. No account is needed to post a sighting, reporting a missing pet is free, and every post shows up in web searches, so a neighbour who spots a wandering dog can find the owner within minutes.

What we believe

• Speed matters more than perfection. A blurry phone photo posted in 30 seconds beats a perfect poster you never print.
• Posting a sighting should take seconds. Someone who spots a loose pet is usually on their way somewhere, so a sighting takes thirty seconds and no account. The owner, who has all the time in the world, fills in the rest.
• Small towns deserve the same tools as big cities. A missing cat in Kenora matters as much as one in Toronto.
• Neighbours find pets. Dog walkers, mail carriers, kids on bikes, and shelter staff are the people who actually spot lost animals. Lost.ca exists to help them and the owner find each other.
• Your privacy comes first. Contact details are shown only to people who sign in. Fake posts are reported and removed. Your information is never sold.

Working with shelters and humane societies

A growing number of Canadian shelters, SPCAs, and humane societies now use Lost.ca alongside their own intake records. When their staff or volunteers come across a stray that doesn't match anything on the books, they post a sighting here so neighbours can spot it. When a missing-pet listing matches one of their recent intakes, they get in touch with the owner directly. The site grew up around that two-way handoff, and it's a big reason most reunions on Lost.ca close within days.

If you run a shelter, rescue, or microchip registry and you'd like to partner with us, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch from the contact page.

The Lost.ca team

Lost.ca is run by an independent group of volunteers from across Canada. Our goal is simple: make Lost.ca the best free resource for Canadians to reunite with their pets. Many of us have worked or volunteered with humane societies and rescues, and we have seen from the inside how often a reunion comes down to the right person seeing the right post at the right time. That experience shapes everything here, from the thirty-second sighting form to the shelter and animal-services contacts on every city page.

Questions, corrections, press enquiries, and partnership requests are all welcome through the contact page.

What you can count on

• Free to use. Reporting a lost pet and posting a sighting cost nothing. The site is supported by optional paid pins that give a post extra visibility, always labelled as such.
• Privacy first. Phone numbers and email addresses never appear on the public page. Owners can be reached by signed-in users, and finders through a relay that keeps their address private.
• A person is watching. Any post can be reported by any reader, every report is reviewed by a person, and posts that break the rules come down.
• No ads, no data sales. We do not sell or share listing data, and there are no advertising networks on the site.
• Numbers in public. What people report on Lost.ca is summarised, without personal details, in the Canada Lost Pet Report, updated daily.
• Bilingual. Every page is available in English and in French.

The project today

Lost.ca is Canada's largest pet lost-and-found community, and it grows with every post. Some cities have busier feeds than others, and every listing makes the next neighbour's search faster. If you've lost a pet, report it. If you've seen one, post a sighting. That's how the network keeps finding pets.