Help & Resources
Pet resources for St. Lawrence County
Lost or found a pet? Need to surrender an animal, license your dog, or find a vet? Start here. For animal-control questions specific to your town, see the local directory below.
Lost a pet?
Act quickly — the sooner you spread the word, the better your chances.
- Call right away: phone local shelters, animal control, veterinarians, and the police to report your missing pet. Many lost pets are waiting at a shelter or pound. (See the directory.)
- Get the word out: put up posters, tell your neighbors, ask them to check yards and outbuildings, and place a lost-pet ad locally and on community social media.
- Search smart: if your pet is spotted in a certain area, focus your search there — a nearby food source may be keeping them close.
- Cats especially often hide nearby rather than roam far. Search quietly at dawn and dusk.
Microchipped?
Make sure your contact details are current with the chip registry. If you adopted from us, call (315) 393-5191 and we'll help you check.
Found a pet?
Finding an animal is not "finder's keepers" — somewhere, a family may be searching for them.
- Report it: call local shelters, animal control, veterinarians, and the police right away. Someone may have already reported the animal missing.
- Bring them in: arrange to bring the animal to a shelter so it can be scanned for a microchip and reunited with its family.
- Don't assume the worst: an animal that's skittish, hand-shy, dirty, or matted may simply have been on its own for a while — not necessarily abused or abandoned.
To bring in a found animal
Please call us during business hours at (315) 393-5191 to make arrangements. Reporting widely gives the owner the best chance of being found.
Surrendering an animal
We understand that giving up a pet is a difficult decision. If you've made it, here's what to know:
- Call first. Please phone during business hours to make arrangements before bringing an animal in.
- Bring records. If you have them, bring any veterinary or adoption records — spay/neuter certificate, rabies certificate, and receipts for other vaccinations or procedures.
- A donation is requested. Because of the rising cost of care, we ask for a surrender donation, which you can discuss with our staff. No animal is turned away for lack of a donation.
- Never abandon an animal. "Dumping" or abandoning an animal is illegal and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Licensing your dog
New York State law requires every dog to be licensed in the city or town where it lives once it reaches four months of age. A current rabies vaccination is required to license.
Your license tag is engraved with your town/city of residence and the clerk's phone number, so a lost dog can be quickly identified and returned. If your dog still has an old NYS Agriculture & Markets tag, ask your clerk for a new town tag at your next renewal — the old tags are no longer in any database and can't be used to reunite a lost dog.
License through your town or city clerk — find the number for your town in the directory below.
Why it matters
A licensed, tagged dog that gets loose can be reunited with you fast. An unlicensed dog may not be — and licensing is the law.
Spay & neuter
Spaying and neutering is the only humane way to control pet overpopulation — and it keeps animals healthier and happier. Low-cost spay/neuter is available through the regional Spay/Neuter Now mobile clinic.
View the mobile clinic schedule
Spay/Neuter Now: (315) 486-0094 · spayneuternow.org
It's part of every adoption
Every animal adopted from the St. Lawrence Valley SPCA is already spayed or neutered before going home.
Rabies clinics
The St. Lawrence County Public Health Department holds free rabies clinics for dogs, cats, and ferrets. New York law requires that all domestic dogs, cats, and ferrets be vaccinated against rabies.
- St. Lawrence County Public Health (Canton): (315) 386-2325
- Schedule & registration: stlawco.org/Departments/PublicHealth · Facebook @SLCPublicHealth
Note: a three-year vaccination requires a current rabies certificate as proof — under NYS law a rabies tag alone is not acceptable proof of a prior vaccination.
Animal emergencies
For a medical emergency with your own pet, contact your veterinarian first (see the directory). For poison and wildlife, use the numbers below.
Poison control
ASPCA Animal Poison Control
(888) 426-4435
Available 24/7, 365 days a year. A consultation fee may apply.
Wildlife emergencies
NYS DEC Environmental Conservation Police
(877) 457-5680
Potsdam sub-station (315) 265-3090 · Conservation Officer (315) 375-6684
Public health
St. Lawrence County Public Health
(315) 386-2325
Rabies exposure, bite reports, and clinic registration.
Local Directory
Animal control officers by town
Find your town's dog control officer, where loose dogs are impounded, and the clerk to call for a dog license. If your dog is lost, your town's officer and impound location are the best first calls.
No towns match — try a different spelling, or call us at (315) 393-5191.
Numbers change from time to time — if a contact is out of date, please call us at (315) 393-5191 and we'll point you in the right direction.
Local shelters
- St. Lawrence Valley SPCA — Ogdensburg (315) 393-5191
- Potsdam Humane Society — Potsdam (315) 265-3199
- Massena Humane Society — Massena (315) 764-1330
- Jefferson County SPCA — Watertown (315) 782-3260
- North Country Animal Shelter — Malone (518) 483-8079
Veterinarians
- Brasher Falls Veterinary Services — Brasher Falls (315) 389-5330
- Bridgeport Veterinary Clinic — Ogdensburg (315) 393-4900
- Canton Animal Clinic — Canton (315) 386-2754
- Java's Veterinary Center — Massena (315) 764-8387
- Dr. Timothy J. Monroe — Gouverneur (315) 287-0690
- Ranch Veterinarians — Heuvelton (315) 344-7735
- Town & Country Vet — Ogdensburg (315) 393-7338
- Town & Country Vet — Potsdam (315) 265-9113
- Town & Country Vet — Massena (315) 705-6653
Boarding kennels
- Border Crossing Kennels — Ogdensburg (315) 393-7949
- Bows & Bandanas Resort — Potsdam (315) 265-3647
- Java's Veterinary Center — Massena (315) 764-8387
- Maple Ridge Kennels — Canton (315) 386-3796
- Monkey Hill Kennels — Ogdensburg (315) 869-8956
- Rainbow Dogs & Cats — Potsdam (315) 322-4067
Wildlife rehabilitators
- Sue-Ryn Burns — Wellesley Island (315) 482-2985
- Naomi Joslin — North Lawrence (315) 328-4369
- Carol Palmer — Parishville (315) 244-2263