Animal Control

Animal Control is a unit of the Raleigh Police Department (RPD) and is responsible for handling vicious animal complaints, injured or abandoned animals, and many other situations involving pets and wild animals.

To learn more about resources and city ordinances, select a topic below.

Animal Control Officers work closely with RPD patrol officers and detectives, who sometimes encounter mistreated, starving, or vicious animals when they respond to calls or serve search warrants. Animal Control Officers also check in with Wake County sheriff's deputies who find abandoned pets in Raleigh residences from which the tenants have been evicted.

Animal Control Officers handle:

•  vicious animal complaints;
• cruelty cases;
• problematic wildlife;
• injured animals;
• barking dogs;
• abandoned pets; and,
• many other types of cases in which an animal needs help.