You found a dog, here's what to do!
- Rose W
- Sep 24
- 2 min read
Wondering what you can do to help bring a lost pet home safely? Here's some resources, local to Jacksonville, FL , as well as information for Petco Love for those not in Jacksonville.
Resources from Jacksonville, FL based organizations:
Friends of Jax Animals - What to do if you find a stray animal
Jacksonville Humane Society - Found pet one-page guide
For those outside of Jacksonville, FL, we recommend that you contact your local animal control and use Petco Love's resources to help:
Register found pets on Petco Love Lost
Please reach out and let us know if any of these resource links stop working.
Can Fawn's foster the dog I found?
Fawn's Small Dog Rescue is 100% volunteer-run and 100% foster based, our ability to take in found or stray dogs is dependent on foster availability.
Pets are considered property by the state of Florida. Any found or stray dogs must complete a stray hold, or home stray hold, through your local animal protective services department or county shelter before they can be (re)homed by the finder, a shelter, or a rescue like Fawn's. See the resources links above for more information about registering animals for stray holds.
Many shelters are currently at, or over, capacity. In that case, it's likely that a shelter will ask you to do a home stray hold. After the stray hold is complete, if the dog hasn't been claimed or pre-adopted, Fawn's may be able to work with the shelter to transfer the dog into our foster program. In some cases, Fawn's may be able to help the shelter with fostering during the stray hold. This depends on Fawn's having an available foster family as well as the condition or state of neglect the dog is found in.
If Fawn's is at capacity, we may be able to recommend other shelters and rescues that might be able to help based on their availability.
