Disclaimer

1. We Are Independent

animal-shelter.org/ is an editorial reference site run independently. We are not commissioned by, endorsed by, partnered with, or accountable to the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS / Humane World for Animals), Best Friends Animal Society, American Humane, the National Animal Control Association (NACA), the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA), the AVMA, the AAHA, USDA APHIS, the CDC, any state department of agriculture or public health, any municipal or county animal services agency, any humane society, any SPCA, or any rescue organisation. The information we publish is gathered from public sources — primarily the official portals and direct contact details of those bodies — and presented in a consistent, practical format.

2. What We Are Not

• A municipal or county animal control office, animal services agency, or animal regulation department
• A physical animal shelter, county shelter, or city shelter
• A humane society — not a chapter, branch, or franchise of any humane society
• An SPCA — not the ASPCA in New York, not any state or local SPCA
• A breed-specific or species-specific rescue organisation
• A licensed veterinarian or veterinary clinic
• A veterinary emergency hospital or after-hours animal hospital
• A wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife rescue
• A microchip registry — we link to AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup, 24PetWatch, HomeAgain, AKC Reunite, Found Animals; we do not run a registry
• A pet adoption platform — Petfinder, Adopt-a-Pet, Rescue Me are the platforms; we are not
• A pet poison control hotline — that’s the ASPCA APCC at 1-888-426-4435 or Pet Poison Helpline at 1-855-764-7661
• A federal regulator (USDA APHIS, FDA, CDC) or state department of agriculture
• A police department or 911 dispatcher
• A licensed attorney, paralegal, or animal-law clinic

For anything that requires action by an official body, you must use the official channel. Every state and county page on this site links straight to those official channels.

3. Not an Emergency Service

4. Not Veterinary Advice

Content on this site is general informational material about U.S. animal sheltering and animal welfare. It is not veterinary advice. We do not diagnose, treat, prescribe, or substitute for examination by a licensed veterinarian. If your pet is sick, injured, has ingested something, has been bitten, has stopped eating, has changed behaviour, has had a seizure, has unexplained bleeding, has difficulty breathing, has lost mobility, has a swollen abdomen, or is otherwise in distress — contact a licensed veterinarian or, after hours, the nearest emergency veterinary hospital. Time matters. Reading a website is not a substitute for getting professional help.

5. Not Legal Advice

Animal-related law in the U.S. is a complex patchwork of federal, state, and local rules — the federal Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. § 2131 et seq.), state cruelty statutes (every state has its own — most are felony statutes, some are misdemeanours), state rabies-vaccination laws, state dangerous-dog laws, breed-specific legislation in some jurisdictions, leash laws, license-and-tag requirements, dog-bite liability rules, “right to rescue” statutes for animals in hot cars (about 16 states), service-animal accommodations under the ADA (28 C.F.R. § 36.302), Emotional Support Animals (ESA) under the Fair Housing Act, and HOA and rental-property pet policies. We do not provide legal advice. For any legal question — pet custody in divorce, dog-bite liability, BSL challenges, ADA service-animal claims, FHA emotional-support-animal claims, animal-cruelty defence, animal-cruelty reporting against a neighbour — consult a licensed attorney in the relevant state. Many state bar associations have lawyer-referral services and reduced-fee panels; some animal-law programmes (e.g., the Animal Legal Defense Fund) maintain referral lists.

6. Information Timeliness

U.S. animal services and shelters change continually:

• Shelter directors and animal-control supervisors come and go; phone systems are reorganised; voicemails are restructured
• Operating hours change seasonally — many open earlier in summer for water-related impounds, close earlier in winter
• Adoption and surrender fees are revised annually
• State stray-hold periods can be amended in any legislative session
• Rabies-vaccination requirements and quarantine procedures vary by state and update periodically
• Cruelty statutes are amended; some states have moved misdemeanour cruelty up to felony; some have added pet-protection orders to domestic-violence proceedings
• Microchip registry company ownership changes — the registry that scans into a brand-new AAHA Universal lookup today may have a new owner next year
• Disaster-response (CART/SART) coordinators and contacts change after each major storm or wildfire

We review pages quarterly, but the official agency’s own page is always the source of truth for the current state. Click through to the official portal from any page to confirm.

7. Cruelty Reporting

If you witness animal cruelty in progress (active beating, deliberate injury, animal fighting), call 911. For ongoing neglect (animals without water, shelter, or veterinary care), call the local cruelty-reporting number on the relevant county page. For large-scale cruelty or hoarding, contact the Humane World for Animals Animal Rescue Team in addition to local authorities.

8. If You’ve Found a Stray

• For your safety and the animal’s, only handle a stray you can safely approach. Frightened or injured animals can bite.
• If the animal is friendly and uninjured, check for ID tag, rabies tag, or city license tag — these often have a phone number that goes directly to the registry or owner
• Take the animal to a vet or shelter to be scanned for a microchip — scanning is generally free and takes 30 seconds
• Use AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup at petmicrochiplookup.org to identify which registry a microchip is on
• Call your county animal control to file a “found pet” report so that if the owner calls in a “lost pet” report, the system connects you
• Post on Petfinder Foundation’s Lost & Found, Pawboost, Nextdoor, and Facebook lost-and-found groups for your area
• Walk the local shelter’s stray hold every 24-48 hours — owners who don’t have internet access often go to the shelter in person
• Understand the difference between “found” and “surrender” — if you keep an animal you found, in most states you must report it to animal control and observe the legal hold period before you can claim ownership

9. Animal Bites and Rabies

10. Wildlife

Most municipal animal control and humane societies do not handle wildlife — that’s the role of state-licensed wildlife rehabilitators and your state fish-and-wildlife agency. For an injured wild animal, use Animal Help Now at ahnow.org to find the nearest licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Do not feed, handle, or attempt to “rescue” wildlife yourself in most cases — wildlife law makes this illegal in most states (including for migratory birds protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 703–712). For wildlife in your home (squirrel in attic, raccoon in garage, snake in basement), most situations require a licensed humane wildlife-removal service rather than animal control or humane society staff.

11. Dangerous Animals and Dog Attacks

If a dog is attacking a person or another animal in progress, call 911 immediately. After the immediate threat is over, follow up with animal control to file a dangerous-dog report. Each state has its own dangerous-dog framework, and many states have a statutory three-tier classification (potentially dangerous / dangerous / vicious). Under most state laws, a dog declared dangerous must be confined, microchipped, and insured for liability; some states require muzzling in public. Some 700+ U.S. cities and counties (and a smaller number of states) have breed-specific legislation (BSL); we describe what’s on the books, not what we think the policy should be.

12. External Links

We link extensively to U.S. municipal animal services, county shelters, humane societies, SPCAs, rescues, the ASPCA, Humane World for Animals, Best Friends, American Humane, NACA, SAWA, USDA APHIS, the CDC, AAHA, AVMA, microchip registries, Petfinder, Adopt-a-Pet, and other authoritative sources. We have no control over those sites and cannot guarantee:

• That they will remain online or at the same URL
• That their content is current at the moment you click through
• That their security and privacy practices match ours
• That their accessibility meets the standard we apply to our own pages

13. Advertising Disclosure

animal-shelter.org/ is funded by display advertising. Advertisements are served by recognised ad networks and labelled where required. We do not accept advertising from breeders, puppy-mill operations, online pet-classified sites with no welfare standards, online “designer breed” outlets, dog-fighting paraphernalia, ear-cropping or tail-docking services, or operations that contradict our editorial position on animal welfare. The official municipal animal services and verified non-profit shelter contacts always come first on every page, before any commercial reference. Where any commercial relationship exists, it is disclosed in context per the FTC Endorsement Guides at 16 C.F.R. Part 255.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• The site and all content on it are provided “as is” and “as available.” We make no warranty that content is complete, accurate, current, fit for any particular purpose, or free from error.
• We are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special loss or damage arising from your use of, or reliance on, this site — including any harm to a person or animal flowing from delay in reaching the right emergency channel, an outdated phone number, or any other consequence.
• Nothing in this disclaimer excludes or limits liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.

The full liability framework is set out in our Terms of Service.

15. Prohibited Uses

16. Names and Trademarks

The names “ASPCA,” “Humane Society of the United States,” “Humane World for Animals,” “Best Friends Animal Society,” “American Humane,” “NACA,” “SAWA,” “AAHA,” “AVMA,” “Petfinder,” “Adopt-a-Pet,” and the names of every municipal agency, humane society, and SPCA mentioned on this site are the property of the relevant body. We use those names to identify the organisation each page covers. We do not claim sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation, and we do not reproduce official logos.

If a shelter, humane society, SPCA, rescue, or national organisation believes our use of its name on a page is misleading or improper, please contact us and we will respond promptly.

17. If Something on This Site Is Wrong

We treat reader corrections as a priority. If you’ve called a number on our site and it didn’t work, you found a wrong address, an outdated procedure, or a wrong shelter director’s name — please email us with the page URL and what you believe is incorrect.