Found a Stray Beagle?

What you should do

Rescues cannot take a stray until the required legal hold time has been fulfilled either with the finder or the shelter - as the rescue would then not have legal ownership of the dog. It is our responsibility to make sure that the owners have the proper time to claim their animal, if in fact they are diligently looking for it.

Can you hold the dog for a few days?

• Notify your local animal control officer and local shelter. Be sure to file a FOUND report with both locations and note the name of the person who took the report.
• Ask your animal control officer what steps you must take to fulfill the legal requirements for stray dogs in your township.
• Call your local newspaper and run a FOUND ad. (Most papers will run a found ad for 3 days at no charge -- they figure if you're honest enough to return something to the owner, they can reward you with a free ad!) Keep a copy of the entire page of the newspaper containing the ad, so you have proof of publication and the date it was published.
• Take a picture of the dog and make up a one-page flyer, posting it heavily in the area in which you found the dog. Drop a copy of the flyer off to all the veterinarians in your area. Ask your vet or shelter if they have a microchip scanner and see if they will scan the dog for an identification chip.
• If the dog isn't claimed, read this article on steps to take to find the dog a new home.

If you can't hold the dog for a few days...

• Call your local animal control officer and have the dog picked up and taken to the local shelter.
• Call your local newspaper and run a FOUND ad. (Most papers will run a found ad for 3 days at no charge -- they figure if you're honest enough to return something to the owner, they can reward you with a free ad!) State in the ad that the dog is at the local shelter!
• Take a picture of the dog and make up a one-page flyer, posting it heavily in the area in which you found the dog. Drop a copy of the flyer off to all the veterinarians in your area. Possibly the dog is a client at that vet's office.
• Notify the closest rescue group and tell them how old the dog is, how long he must be held at the shelter, and give them the shelter's name and telephone number. If you are not near one of our SOS chapters in Tennessee or New Jersey, please consult our Rescue Locator Map for other beagle rescues in the U.S. If the rescue has room available, they will contact the shelter and arrange a "last resort" - that means if the dog doesn't get adopted, the rescue will be called to pick up the dog before it is destroyed. Bear in mind that rescues are, most times, full and can't always take a dog.