Lost or found a pet?

If your pet is lost

1. Walk the neighborhood and put up signs with a clear photo.
2. File a lost report. Inside Santa Barbara city limits, report to City Animal Control and to the county shelter; the city asks for both. Everywhere else, start with the county shelter.
3. Check found animals every day. The county's strays are listed on PetHarbor (found dogs, cats and others), and Santa Barbara Humane lists the strays in its care. Go to the shelter in person too. A photo online doesn't always look like your pet.
4. Post it on Nextdoor, Craigslist, Petco Love Lost and the local lost-pet Facebook groups the county links to.
5. Make sure the microchip has your current phone number. A chip with an old number won't bring your pet home.

Don't wait. The City of Santa Barbara holds strays for 72 hours for owners to claim before they go up for adoption.

If you found a pet

1. Check for a tag. If there's a license or ID, call or text the owner. A county DocuPet tag has a code you can enter at DocuPet or call in at 1-877-239-6072, any time.
2. Get it scanned for a chip at a vet or the shelter. Look the number up on the AAHA chip lookup to find which registry to call.
3. Bring it to the shelter within 24 hours if you can't find the owner. County rules let you keep a stray that long. If nobody claims it, the finder gets first chance to adopt. (County rules)
4. At night, the shelter is closed from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., so keep the animal until it opens. If it's badly hurt, call 911.

Who to call

Wildlife and sea lions

• Hurt or orphaned wild animal: call the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network at 805-681-1080, seven days a week. Drop-off is 1460 N. Fairview Ave in Goleta, 9 to 4:30 daily. Don't touch bats, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons or skunks; call first.
• Seal, sea lion, sea turtle, whale or dolphin on the beach: call CIMWI at 805-567-1505. It's the only group authorized to respond in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Chips and licenses

• Free microchips: the county shelters chip pets free, with lifetime registration. (Details)
• Dog licenses: required every year for dogs 4 months and older. The county sells them through DocuPet, and each tag comes with a 24/7 lost-pet service. The City of Santa Barbara and Carpinteria license their own dogs.

Fireworks nights

All fireworks, "safe and sane" included, are illegal in Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and the unincorporated county (County Fire). Some still go off, and Nextdoor says lost-pet posts spike in July, likely because of the Fourth (Nextdoor). Keep pets inside that night, check that tags and chip numbers are current, and remember the county shelter is closed on July 4 and January 1.

Checked against each official page on October 30, 2026. Rules and fees change, so follow the links before you rely on a detail. Spot something out of date? Tell us at hello@sbsavvy.com.