Florida Bar Journal

Lost and Found Pets

The Florida Constitution provides: “The humane treatment of animals is a fundamental value of the people of the state of Florida.” This is an acknowledgement that animals are of a higher intrinsic value than chattel or personal property.^[1] While pet owners may consider their pets to be family members, the law designates animals as having no greater legal status than a piece of furniture.^[2] Conflicting procedures for handling lost, found, and abandoned pets in Florida’s statutory scheme and local agencies have resulted in law enforcement, animal control officers, and pet owners alike being left with an amalgamation of conflicting guidance on how to handle lost, found, and abandoned pets. This article explores the laws governing lost, abandoned, and found pets in Florida and how other states have ameliorated confusion in similar contexts.

Florida Property Laws

Generally, all state statutes regarding lost and found property have the same format: a notice period, surrendering possession to authorities, and subsequent sale or possession given to the finder in the absence of a claim by the owner.^[3] The only Florida property law that provides a reporting procedure specifically for animals is F.S. §705.19 (2025) (abandonment of animals by owner; procedure for handling), which provides specific guidelines for animals that are abandoned by owners at veterinary offices or bonafide boarding kennels. The statute defines abandonment as “to forsake entirely or to neglect or refuse to provide or perform the legal obligation for care and support of an animal by its owner….”^[4] Such abandonment constitutes the relinquishment of all rights and claims by the owner to the animal.^[5] The statute states that an animal is abandoned if left at a veterinary office or boarding facility for more than 10 days after written notice is given to the owner, and abandoned animals may be turned over to the custody of the nearest humane society or pound in the area for disposal.^[6] Giving notice to the owner relieves the custodian of the animal from further liability.^[7]

• Lost and Abandoned Property — Florida’s lost or abandoned property statute defines abandoned property and lost property.^[8] Abandoned property is property that does not have an identifiable owner and has been disposed of on public property or has no apparent intrinsic value to the rightful owner.^[9] It is important to note that the definitions for abandoned property and abandoned pets differ greatly. Lost property is defined as property that does not have an identifiable owner and has been mislaid on public property in a substantially operable, functioning condition or which has an apparent intrinsic value to the rightful owner.^[10] Strikingly, the lost and abandoned property statutes do not account for the reality that animals are animated objects that travel on their own, and are legally entitled to basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter. Rather, the aforementioned statutes become inapplicable when animals are at issue, and individuals instead turn to local agencies such as animal control or an animal shelter for guidance on how to report a lost or abandoned pet.

The procedure for reporting lost or abandoned property states that finders of lost or abandoned property must report the property to a law enforcement officer.^[11] County or municipal employees may also be designated to administer the provisions of this chapter and, thus, have the ability to take and handle reports of lost or abandoned property, so long as law enforcement has designated them to do so.^[12] Ideally, F.S. §705.1015 would allow for animal control officers and employees at local animal shelters to act as the point of contact for those who have lost or found pets as most individuals will intuitively choose to contact their local animal control or animal shelter simply because they assume they are the proper agency. However, the statute does not provide an explicit delegation of these duties to local agencies, thus, the statutory language requires individuals to initiate reports of lost or abandoned property by first contacting law enforcement.

For lost property, law enforcement must retain custody of the property for 90 days and publish notice of the property during the first 45 days of the 90-day period.^[13] As written, the statute, requires law enforcement to take reported lost or abandoned animals into their custody and retain custody of the animal for 90 days. The statute does not provide a specific procedure for animals to be turned over to the local animal control or animal shelter facilities, though this procedure is what typically occurs. This provision has become obsolete, as seemingly lost animals are often brought to local animal control or animal shelter facilities and held for a specified period of time before becoming property of the facility.

The role of local animal control is key to managing lost and found pets. Tallahassee Animal Services asks community members who find potentially lost pets to do the following before rehoming an animal: 1) Look for identification; 2) have the animal scanned for a microchip; 3) fill out a found pet report at Talgov.com; 4) search the lost animals listed on Tallahassee Animal Services’ website; 5) post the pet on various found pet websites and social media groups; and 6) create flyers and post around the area where the animal was found.^[14] Tallahassee Animal Services enforces a “stray hold period” for owners of lost pets to reclaim their animals. Once this period ends, the pets become property of the shelter and can be adopted, transferred, or euthanized, which is entirely different than the statutorily required 90-day period.^[15] Even further, the Tallahassee government webpage encourages sharing found pets on social media prior to rehoming with no mention of reporting to law enforcement as statutorily required.^[16] These instructions directly conflict with the procedure found in F.S. §705.1015 for reporting lost or abandoned animals and lead to confusion as to how to report lost, abandoned, and found pets.

• Right of Replevin — The right of replevin provides an additional means for litigating pet ownership disputes. Replevin allows anyone whose personal property has been wrongfully detained to file a writ of replevin to recover the property, and receive any damages sustained as a result of the wrongful taking or detention.^[17] A writ of replevin may be filed in animal ownership disputes by the original owner to regain ownership. To authorize an order for replevin, the plaintiff must provide a description sufficient to identify the property and any knowledge or information of the value of the property and its location.^[18] The plaintiff must also provide proof of ownership, the means by which the property was wrongfully obtained by the defendant, as well as the cause for the detention of property.^[19]

Florida Animal Laws

Florida’s animal crimes statutes are known as general intent statutes, or statutes that prohibit a specific voluntary act or something that is substantially certain to result from the act.^[20] An actor’s subjective intent to cause a particular result is irrelevant to general intent crimes.^[21] Florida law defines abandonment of an animal: “to forsake an animal entirely or to neglect or refuse to provide care and support of an animal by its owner.”^[22] Any person who is the owner “of any animal who abandons such animal to suffer injury or malnutrition or abandons any animal in a street, road, or public place without providing for the care, sustenance, protection, and shelter of such animal” is guilty of animal cruelty under F.S. §828.13(3).^[23] Statewide laws, however, do not provide guidance on how to handle animals that have escaped their homes or been abandoned, nor guidance on how to determine guidance on ownership of a lost or abandoned pet.

• Local Animal Ordinances — Local government ordinances are keys to controlling lost and found pets. In Leon County, it is unlawful for any animal to run or remain at large on any street, road, park, or other public place.^[24] Leon County further requires pet owners to provide pets with food, shelter, veterinary care, and humane treatment.^[25] In Tallahassee, the owner of an animal must prevent the animal from running or remaining at large on any public street or public space, or private property without consent of the property administrator.^[26] Like in the Leon County ordinance, pet owners are required to provide pets with food, shelter, veterinary care, and humane treatment.^[27] Under these local ordinances, animal control officers must have the authority to capture and impound any animal that is running at large, has no evidence of inoculations (vaccinations), and any animal that is a victim of animal cruelty or is not being maintained consistent with animal care standards.^[28] Animals may be impounded at Tallahassee Animal Services and the owner of an impounded animal must reclaim it from Tallahassee Animal Services.^[29]
When pets are enabled to escape their homes or are abandoned, the owners violate the local ordinances by 1) allowing the pets to run at large, and 2) failing to provide the basic necessities of food, water, and shelter. Violation of these local animal ordinances may be met with seizure of the animal by law enforcement or animal control, which allows for subsequent adoption to another owner.^[30]

Ownership

With the confusion among procedures for reporting lost, found, and abandoned pets, comes confusion on who owns a pet that was lost, found, or abandoned. After all, who is the owner of an animal that was not properly reported as lost, abandoned, or found under the law? Numerous courts have considered whether the original owner of a lost or abandoned animal retains their ownership rights, or if ownership is relinquished once the animal has escaped from the control of the original owner.

When discovering a pet running at large, community members may take the pet in while following what they believe is the proper procedure for reporting a found pet, such as contacting animal control and animal shelters, and posting on social media. If these efforts prove to be unsuccessful, some individuals may surrender the pet to the local animal shelter for a stray hold, but some may simply keep the pet and take ownership.

In the Courts

In Hajdinyak v. O’Connell, 2016 Mass. App. Div. 127 (Dist. Ct. 2016), a 2016 Massachusetts opinion, addressed the issue of whether replevin may be granted for an original owner of a seemingly abandoned dog. Defendant, a Massachusetts resident, was on vacation in Aruba when she discovered a dog roaming the beach.^[31] The dog appeared to be dehydrated, in distress, and covered in ticks.^[32] Most notably, the dog had no collar or other identification.^[33] The defendant took the dog to a veterinarian for medical care and the veterinarian further confirmed the dog had no identifying information such as a microchip, collar, or tag.^[34] The defendant contacted a local Aruban rescue, which assisted the defendant in vetting and adopting the dog, now named Coco, and bringing her home to Massachusetts.^[35] Plaintiffs, residents of Aruba, brought suit and claimed they were Coco’s rightful owners.^[36] Justice Kirkman rejected any claim to ownership of Coco by either or both plaintiffs.^[37] Justice Kirkman rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments as to their ongoing care of Coco, and based his decision on the condition Coco was in when recovered by the defendant.^[38] Justice Kirkman further held that any claim of ownership by the plaintiffs was relinquished when the plaintiffs allowed Coco to gain her freedom and fend for herself.^[39] Interestingly, Justice Kirkman also made note of the fact that there is a severe problem with stray and feral dogs in Aruba that causes around 8,000 dogs per year to be euthanized.^[40]

The state of California has ruled similarly to Massachusetts. In 1947, a California court held that, “One who treats a dog as living at his [or her] house, and undertakes to control his [or her] actions, is the owner or keeper within the meaning of the law….”^[41] More recently, the Superior Court of California was faced with how to determine ownership of a dog in the 2016 case, Bafverfeldt v. Cole, No. 56201200413262, 2014 WL 7927770 (Cal.Super. Oct. 06, 2014). The Bafverfeldt court held that ownership of a dog may be established by evidence that a defendant bought and paid for a dog, fed the dog, controlled the premises where the dog was kept, at whose call the dog would come, and procured a collar.^[42] Even further, the court found that how a party speaks of a dog is significant to ownership, such as a reference to “my dog.”^[43]

Policy Changes

Florida should consider ownership of a dog in the same way as Massachusetts and California courts. An owner who allows their dog to “gain freedom” without some form of owner identification and neglects their dog should relinquish their ownership of the dog and the person who cares for their dog, houses their dog, and who the dog comes to, should be its rightful owner.^[44]
As demonstrated in this article, clearer statutory language is needed to protect pet owners, third parties, and pets. Strengthening these laws will go further toward preventing the difficulties, inconvenience, and expense of enforcing these laws. One suggestion is to clarify the process of reporting lost and found pets through Florida lost and found statutes. Pets should not be reported in the same way as inanimate personal property. Additional legislation is needed to provide pet owners and good samaritans with proper notice for the reporting process. Rather, the reporting process for lost and found animals should be drawn from the aforementioned F.S. §705.19, which both acknowledges the need for a different reporting process and provides specific guidelines for reporting abandoned animals to a local animal shelter or humane society.

In acknowledging the need for additional legislation, the authors suggest a modest amendment that more accurately and humanely reflects the differences between sentient beings and more traditional inanimate personal property under the common law. The suggested below amendment to F.S. §705.102 excludes animals from the current reporting process and instructs individuals to report lost or found pets orally or in writing to local law enforcement or the nearest animal shelter, and provides the definition of abandonment of an animal, which is currently absent from the definitions of lost and abandoned property:

AMENDMENT TO §705.102. Reporting lost or abandoned property

(1) Whenever any person finds any lost or abandoned property, such person shall report the description and location of the property to a law enforcement officer.
(2) UNLESS said property is an animal.

(a) Whenever any person finds a lost or abandoned animal, such person shall report the animal orally or in writing to law enforcement or the nearest animal shelter or humane society in the area.

(b) For the purpose of this section, the term “abandonment” means to forsake entirely or to neglect or refuse to provide or perform the legal obligations for care and support of an animal by its owner or the owner’s agent. Such abandonment shall constitute the relinquishment of all rights and claim by the owner to such animal.

With this simple yet important amendment, pet owners who lose their pets, well-meaning people who find lost pets, law enforcement, animal control, and the courts will benefit through a better understanding of current animal laws, and improvements through the adoption of additional legislation and local ordinances.

Ralph A. DeMeo

Ralph A. DeMeo is a shareholder in the Tallahassee office of Adams and Reese, where he practices environmental, land use, administrative, and animal law. He is an adjunct professor at FSU and Stetson law schools, is a member of The Florida Bar Animal Law Section executive council, and is past chair of the Animal Law Section, the Environmental and Land Use Law Section, and The Florida Bar Journal and News Editorial Board.

Samantha Joles

Samantha Joles is a 3L at Florida State University College of Law. While pursuing her J.D., she owns and manages Feline Fine Animal Rescue, a nonprofit animal rescue based in Tallahassee. Joles has co-authored numerous articles on animal law, including Legal Battles Against Animal Abuse; Puppy and Kitten Mills, and Other Inhumane Activities; and Horseracing: The Unbridled Truth. Next year, she will serve as a lobbyist for the The Florida Bar Animal Law Section while completing her final semester in law school.  

This column is submitted on behalf of the Animal Law Section, Laura A. Roe, chair, Ralph A. DeMeo, editor, and Macie J. Routa, special editor.