Animal Services patrols the city looking for stray and lost animals, responding to animal complaints and enforcing state and city animal control ordinances. The operation differs from other area municipalities in that it operates its own animal control facility.

Havelock Animal Services, shelters and feeds all captured animals for up to five days. There are many benefits of this program, the biggest being that citizens do not have to travel the 28 mile round trip to the county pound in New Bern to claim an animal that has been picked up.