Please take all possible measures to keep this found dog contained and safe, and proceed with the following steps:
Call your town's Animal Control Officer (ACO), local Police or Sheriff's department, and your local Animal Shelter. People who lose a dog notify these agencies first, so it is the quickest and most efficient means in finding the owners.
According to Maine state law, the finder of a dog is required to report any found dog to officials. Keeping a found dog at your home without reporting to the proper authorities is illegal and also detrimental to finding the owners of the dog.
Even though posting on social media can be helpful, IT IS NOT ENOUGH! Not everyone has access to, can contact you through, or will be looking at your Facebook page. (Messaging someone on facebook who is not a "friend" sends the message into your spam folder, where it can easily be missed and deleted)
The links below are sites to help you locate the ACO and local shelter in your area. (You can copy and paste the links into your address bar or find them on the MLDR page in the "ABOUT" box on the left hand side and click on them directly.
Animal Control: http://www.maine.gov/dacf/ahw/animal_welfare/animal_control_officers.shtml (Enter the name of your city/town in the lower Search box at the right of the page to find information for your area)
Animal Shelters: http://www.animalsheltersinmaine.com/
These sites are not always up-to-date; if you have a problem please phone your local police or town hall)
Take a photo of the dog (full body is best) so that we may post it to the page along with the information that you have included in this form.
We will post found dogs with an official agency telephone number rather than a personal one. This is for security purposes, both for the dog and the finder.