Lost, Stray, or Abandoned Animals
If you encounter an animal in your neighborhood or at your workplace who you think is lost or abandoned, there are steps you can take to help that animal get back home or into a new home.
Your Rights & Responsibilities Upon Finding a Pet
- When you take in a lost animal, you are agreeing to a legal responsibility to attempt to find the owner and to take good care of the animal in the meantime. Even if that animal was in your own yard, you are legally obligated to follow the proper procedure to allow the owner the opportunity to reclaim his pet.
- As the finder, your right to the pet is second only to that of the original owner. But if you keep someone’s pet without following proper procedure, that is theft. You are not entitled to just keep the animal any more than you are entitled to keep a car parked near your house with the keys in the ignition, the wallet you find when walking through a parking lot, or the bicycle you see leaning against a wall outside of a business.
- You cannot rehome animals yourself. If you give a pet away without following proper procedure, that is conversion of property. You can help seek a new home, but you must do so in cooperation with a shelter or rescue group.
- It is a mistake to assume that the pet was abandoned. Despite apparent evidence to the contrary, a family could be desperately searching for their pet, just as you would for yours. Perhaps a delivery person accidentally left a gate unlatched. Maybe a limb knocked over a fence in an unseen corner of the property. The pet may have been stolen and then dumped by a disgruntled neighbor or family member. Perhaps the pet escaped while being boarded. We just can’t know what might have happened.
How to Help a Lost, Stray, or Abandoned Animal
First, do any of these circumstances apply?
- Does the owner allows the dog to roam? If dog confinement is required at the location, you can report the violation. If there is no requirement, seek other ways to address the issue.
- Is the animal a cat? Read these special considerations for cats.
- Do you have evidence that the pet was abandoned? See Abandonment.
- Is your own pet missing? See these tips.
In other situations, if you find an animal that is clearly homeless or lost, was abandoned, or is vulnerable (e.g., sick or injured, elderly, kittens or puppies, or near a busy road):
- Check for tags or other identification on a collar. Many people use tags that include a phone number and some microchipped pets wear tags with the microchip number so you can contact the company and report you found the animal.
If the animal keeps his distance and/or if are not able to take further steps, you can call animal control, the police department, or the sheriff’s office to request impoundment. To ensure that the officer can locate the animal upon arrival, confine the animal until then if you are able to safely do so. You may also have the option of bringing the animal in yourself if you can safely do so and if allowed by the impoundment facility.
Can you do more to help the animal and the owner who may be missing their pet?
- Take the animal to your vet or a shelter to be scanned for a microchip, provided you can do so safely. Most veterinary offices will scan for free to help a lost pet get back home.
- Report the found pet to local animal control authorities (the shelter or ACO) so the pet is put “in the system” to make sure the owner can find the pet. This is called a virtual intake. If your area has no shelter or animal control, see this information.
- Canvass the neighborhood. The pet you found may belong to someone who lives very close to you. Check with your neighbors and businesses near you to ask if they know who owns the pet.
- Use social media to seek the owner. Sites like Facebook and NextDoor are great tools to try to help pets get back home. Ask the shelter or animal control to share your post.
You may then have the option of fostering the animal. Fostering keeps pets out of the stressful shelter environment. Keep the foster animal separate from your own pets. The animal may be sick or injured, disoriented in this unfamiliar location, or worried about being apart from his or her family. Offer a calm and comfortable environment. Once the animal control officer or shelter staff informs you that the property hold period has ended, you can arrange to adopt, if you choose.
- Bring the animal to the shelter or coordinate with animal control to have the animal impounded.
The animal will be kept in the shelter for the required hold period. You can still use social media to seek the owner, and you can also network with rescue groups to help keep the animal from being destroyed. If not reclaimed, the shelter may:
- Adopt the animal to you, if you have communicated that as your wish. The finder of the pet has the first right to adopt the animal if the original owner does not reclaim the pet.
- Make the animal available for adoption to the public.
- Release the animal to a nonprofit rescue organization.
- Put the animal to death.
Feeding an animal does not make you the animal's owner. See the FAQ for more information about this myth.
Special Considerations for Cats
It is easy to tell the difference between a Yorkie and a coyote. It is not possible to visually discern a difference between a pet cat and a cat who is not social to people. They look the same. Some cats are actually part of the ecosystem and have never been pets at all. Pet cats will typically seek attention and may vocalize. Cats who are not social to people do not speak and usually won’t let you get near them. Having said that, even a pet cat may run from an unfamiliar person.
If you encounter a cat outside who has a healthy body weight and is not injured, he or she likely belongs to a neighbor or is part of the ecosystem. Ask around in your neighborhood to see if the cat belongs to someone before you do anything. If you can’t find who owns the cat, you can follow the steps above — while keeping in mind that cats taken to shelters have a slim chance of being reclaimed and a high chance of being destroyed.
If there is a rescue group in your area that helps free-roaming cats, you can seek their assistance for something called TNR: trap, neuter, return. This is a process in which cats are trapped, sterilized, vaccinated, and ear-tipped (for easy identification) and then released to the area where the cat was found. Some shelters also provide TNR services to the community or have “barn cat” or “working cat” program to place cats.
Kittens, elderly cats, and sick or injured cats have a right to shelter. Follow the process for lost or abandoned animals to help them. The only exception to this is very young kittens. If you find a nest of neonatal kittens outside, it is possible the mother cat is nearby. If the kittens look healthy (clean, warm with round bellies), do not touch them. Leave them for 6–8 hours to see if the mother cat returns to care for them. Their survival is much more likely with her care. If the mother does not return, seek help from a local rescue group or animal shelter (provided the shelter does not destroy neonatal animals).
Intentional Abandonment of Animals
Animal abandonment is a crime in Alabama. Do you have first-hand information?
- Perhaps your dashcam caught footage of the truck in front of you when a dog was pushed out.
- Perhaps your neighbors moved and left their cats behind.
- Perhaps your employer has surveillance footage showing the origin of the box of puppies that was left next to the building.
Such evidence can lead to cruelty charges. Document evidence and call animal control or law enforcement immediately.