One lost dog’s story turned into a call to action when her disappearance revealed a big problem in the Durham Region.
While helping in the search for Chelsea, a missing dog from Whitby, Janet Grixti was shocked to find the region had no resources in place for finding and catching lost pets.
“We never did find Chelsea, but we recognized that there was a huge problem out there with animals in distress,” said Grixti.
Grixti addressed this issue in her community by founding Team Chelsea on Jan. 13, 2011. Since then, the volunteer group has helped locate over 30,000 pets and has accumulated an online following of over 65,000 members on Facebook.
On Jan. 1, 2025, the Team Chelsea Facebook page shared its year-end tally for 2024. Last year, over 3,000 lost, stray or abandoned pets were found by the group’s volunteers.
Grixti says the best case scenario in her line of work is when pets and owners can be found and reunited quickly. To ensure this, Team Chelsea works closely with animal services in the Durham Region, which often receive missing pet reports.
She says there are additional challenges when it comes to finding lost animals in each season, including dangerously low temperatures in the winter, tall corn in the fall and overgrown fields in the summer. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” she says.
The group sees many distressing cases. With the nature of the work volunteers do being emotionally taxing, Grixti says it’s important to “not soak it in like a sponge.”
“It’s definitely tough, we often see some very difficult situations … but we all feel like we’re doing the best we can,” she says.
Grixti says that even though the group covers the entire Durham Region, additional supports are needed in every municipality. She extends this idea to a national level, saying: “Every area in the province needs something like this.”
“I’m sure there’s so many more animals out there than we even know. It’s just endless, really,” she says.
Team Chelsea’s ultimate goal is to see less cases of pet loss, regularly sharing education surrounding prevention methods.
Grixti says securing fences, microchipping and ensuring pets have proper identification on their collars can make significant differences when it comes to pet loss prevention.
The Team Chelsea Facebook group displays many positive interactions reflecting the organization’s impact on the Durham Region. On a post celebrating the group’s 14-year anniversary, one commenter noted: “Thank you for all you do. So many animals have been found, saved and rehomed”.