Category: Advocacy

What Should I Do If I Find a Stray Animal?

Posted on by Shae

Please note: The Humane Society of Utah cannot accept stray animals.  

Many Utahans don’t aren’t sure what to do if they find a stray pet.
In Salt Lake County and most other counties and municipalities of Utah, it is illegal to harbor a stray animal. When individuals lose their companion animals, they tend to look at their jurisdiction’s municipal shelter. If you harbor the animal in your home instead of bringing the animal to the municipal shelter, you are depriving the rightful owner of reuniting with their companion animal. Do the right thing by informing animal services of the found animal immediately. 

If you find a stray dog

Dogs can be both in danger and a danger to others when at large. If you find a stray dog, you must take the dog to the municipal shelter in whatever jurisdiction the dog was found. The chances are that a family is missing the dog and will look for him at their local shelter.

If the dog is friendly and approaches you, take the dog to your local municipal shelter. If the dog flees or seems aggressive, do not chase him.

Call your local animal services dispatch to retrieve the dog. If animal services officers are unavailable, you may be able to call your local police dispatch to retrieve the dog and take the dog to impound.

dog in snow

If you find a stray cat 

Caring people bring stray animals to shelters to help them, but cats have different needs than dogs. If you find a healthy stray cat, leave them where they are. Data indicates that owned cats at large will find their way home up to 75% of the time when left in place. However, less than 2% of cats (without microchips) may be reclaimed from a shelter. If the cat does not have a traditional home, but is healthy and appears well-fed, the cat is either finding their own abundant food source and shelter or is being fed and cared for by someone who will be missing them. Crowding them into a shelter promotes stress and disease, and lowers the likelihood of a positive outcome even if the shelter has a return to field (RTF) program.

If you find an ill, injured or endangered stray cat, please take the cat to the municipal shelter in the jurisdiction in which the cat was found. The shelter will attempt to find the original owner while the cat is treated. The cat may be altered and released or humanely euthanized, depending on the needs of the individual animal and the shelter’s resources. If you are unable to get the cat into your custody safely, report the cat’s location to your local municipal animal services.

If you see large populations of unaltered, reproducing cats—characterized by adult cats without tipped ears, or litters of kittens present, call your local shelter and inquire about their RTF program and how you can help.  A tipped ear indicates that they have been spayed or neutered and returned to the field already.

Advocating for the animals in your community

Find out about your local ordinance regarding the care for stray cats and dogs by checking your city’s code webpage or calling your local animal control. Many cities do not have any services for cats, even those that are injured.

If your city doesn’t have services to protect companion animals, contact our advocacy department. We are happy to guide you on how to go about getting valuable services for all companion animals in your area. Thank you for caring about the stray animals in your community!

Our new CATNIP program

The Utah Humane Society Clinic recently launched our CATNIP Program to help spay/neuter trapped feral and community cats at an affordable price in an effort to help trap, neuter, return (TNR) efforts to curb the homeless cat population. Appointments must be made in advance for each cat.

This is not a service for the general public. Please visit UtahHumane.org/CATNIP for more information.

community cat outside

Reporting Animal Cruelty in Utah

Posted on by Shae

Should I report my neighbors for animal cruelty? 

Around your neighborhood, you may encounter animal maltreatment. This maltreatment may be out in the open, such as an individual leaving a heavy chain around a dog’s neck in plain view. The maltreatment could be hidden and only suspected, such as overhearing a person yelling at an outdoor cat and hearing the cat cry out. How do you know when maltreatment is legally cruelty, and when do you report it?  This article aims to give you insight into what constitutes cruelty and how to report suspected cruelty. It provides practical information on animal maltreatment generally that will help empower you to protect the silent animal victims in your neighborhood. 

Utah Humane Society’s Role in Animal Cruelty Calls

Do not report animal cruelty to the Utah Humane Society as we cannot legally investigate animal cruelty. The Utah Humane Society does not have police powers and has not had investigative powers since the 1990s. Reporting animal cruelty to us is not effective as we must simply call animal control on your behalf without all the details that you have from what you witnessed. We are always happy to guide you to the appropriate authorities, however. 

Utah’s Animal Cruelty Laws

Utah specifically outlaws the following maltreatment of animals:

  • Failing to provide necessary food, water, care, or shelter for an animal in the person’s custody
  • Abandoning an animal
  • Injuring an animal
  • Causing any animal to fight with another animal 
  • Administering poison or causing poison to be administered to an animal
  • Killing an animal* (killing an animal is legal if you have a legal privilege to do so, e.g., food production)
  • Torturing an animal** (torturing a companion animal, which is defined in Utah law as a domestic dog or cat, is a felony and therefore an elevated criminal offense) 

When in Doubt, Report!

Chances are you are not a lawyer, and you are not a public safety officer, and as such, there is no reason why you should have to discern whether or not what you are seeing or hearing is animal cruelty. If you suspect something is off, report it. Better to err on the side of caution and be wrong than to ignore the potential maltreatment and allow an animal to suffer. 

Over the past several decades, researchers have studied the interrelationship between animal abuse, child abuse, elder abuse, domestic violence, and other forms of violence. Referred to as “The Link,” this interrelationship suggests that one type of violence tends to indicate the existence of or lead to other forms of violence. For example, if an animal is enduring maltreatment in a home where children are present, it is likely that the children are also enduring abuse. This is relevant because if you suspect animal maltreatment in a neighbor’s home and don’t want to report it because it is “just an animal,” remember that the animal is likely not the only one being abused. For more information on The Link, please visit the National Link Coalition’s website. 

reporting animal abuse in utah

How to Report

Report to the Appropriate Authorities

The first step is to call the appropriate authorities. The National Link Coalition has a list of some of the main animal control offices in Utah available here. There are parts of Utah without animal control agencies. In those areas, you can report to your local police or county Sheriff’s department. If you are not sure who to call, you can always call the Utah Humane Society for guidance. We keep an updated list of all animal control services throughout the state of Utah. 

Information Needed

The information needed to begin a formal inquiry is your name, your phone number, the address of where the potential cruelty has taken place, and a description of the potential cruelty, including any information on the animal (such as species and color) and the owner. If you have photos and videos that are obtained without trespassing, that is also beneficial.  If you wish to follow-up on the case, ask that the responding officer call you back with a case number. However, having a case number does not necessarily mean they can give you any information going forward. If an investigation remains open, they may need to protect details in order to preserve the case.  Please note that you may report animal maltreatment anonymously. However, if the case proceeds to prosecution, an anonymous person cannot be a witness. If you are the only person who has witnessed what happened to the animal, please consider being brave and going on record. You may be the key to a successful prosecution. 

Animal Control Response

Utah’s animal protection laws are vague, meaning the statutes themselves will not define much of what constitutes certain provisions, such as “necessary shelter” or “injuring.” While this can be frustrating when determining whether or not to report an incident in your neighborhood, the positive flip side is that the vagueness gives animal control more discretion in enforcing the law. This discretion allows animal control to educate when appropriate and cite when education does not work.  Please be patient with law enforcement’s response. Sometimes, it may take several calls or incidents for an agency to be able to investigate. Beyond that, they need time to work a case. Know that this is their job and they take it seriously.