Animal Care & Protective Services

Animal Care & Protective Services Our mission is to take the lead in cultivating a community rooted in compassion and service that safeguards the wellbeing of humans & animals alike.
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We're dedicated to exemplifying and fostering compassion, reliability, and responsibility in Jacksonville. Animal Care & Protective Services is the City of Jacksonville's animal shelter. Monday - Saturday we receive anywhere from 50-100 dogs/cats per day. These animals are found stray, owner surrendered or saved from animal abuse situations. Please go to www.coj.net/pets to look at all of our lost

dogs and cats that we have. Please consider adopting a dog and/or cat from Animal Care & Protective Services. All of them need homes.

Come save lives with us this weekend (once you wake up from that turkey-and-stuffing coma, that is)! ❤️ You might rememb...
11/27/2025

Come save lives with us this weekend (once you wake up from that turkey-and-stuffing coma, that is)! ❤️

You might remember that at the start of November, we set a goal of getting ✨ 450 ✨ dogs and cats into adoptive and foster homes. Our month of events has been a HUGE success and we've already exceeded that goal, but we're not settling: now we want to see ‼️ 500 ‼️ animals in loving homes by the end of the month.

Come meet your new best friend! We've got FREE adoptions all weekend and we're open from 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. See you soon!

ACPS is extra thankful that we get to participate in a true Jacksonville tradition for the first time: Petesgiving!! We'...
11/26/2025

ACPS is extra thankful that we get to participate in a true Jacksonville tradition for the first time: Petesgiving!! We'll be joining in the fun tomorrow from 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM, bringing our adorable adoptable dogs to the celebration. Come say hi! 🦃 🐶

PS: the shelter will be open 12:00 - 4:00 tomorrow in observance of the holiday. ❤️

DID YOU KNOW?Here at ACPS, 67% of lost pets that are reunited with their families are found within the first 24–72 hours...
11/25/2025

DID YOU KNOW?

Here at ACPS, 67% of lost pets that are reunited with their families are found within the first 24–72 hours. After that, the chances drop fast while stress, illness, and overcrowding rise inside shelters.

That’s why we’re supporting a 3-day stray hold for animals without identification. It keeps pets healthier, opens kennels for new arrivals, and gets lost animals home faster — especially when paired with strong reunification tools like microchips, Petco Lovelost, tags, and neighborhood outreach.

Pets with ID, like a registered microchip, will still receive a longer 6-day hold period, giving families extra time to reconnect.

And speaking of reunification…

🐾 Don’t Forget! Our FREE Microchip Clinic Is Almost Here!
📅 Saturday, November 29 | 10 AM – 4 PM
📍 EveryPet Norwood Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic
6817 Norwood Ave, Jacksonville, FL 32208

✨ FREE microchips for the first 150 pets
🐶 Limit 2 pets per family
🏠 Duval County residents
🚶‍♀️ Walk-ins welcome with friendly pets

Microchips save lives — and this weekend, they’re FREE.
Help us keep Jacksonville’s pets safe, reunited, and out of the shelter. Spread the word!

As Thanksgiving approaches, Team ACPS is reflecting and realizing we have a LOT to be thankful for. We want to spotlight...
11/24/2025

As Thanksgiving approaches, Team ACPS is reflecting and realizing we have a LOT to be thankful for. We want to spotlight some of the many NEW community partnerships that we've formed lately, and we're starting off strong with Waste Not Want Not! 🥳

When we last-minute needed a way to transport a bunch of crates to last month's Pet Adoption Festival, Waste Not Florida graciously lent us use of one of their trucks. This kindness was the reason we were able to bring so many animals to the event—and why so many dogs and cats were able to find loving homes.

Thank you!! ❤️

PS: Waste Not Want Not is an amazing organization dedicated to alleviating hunger and preventing food waste in Northeast Florida. Check out their mission here: https://buff.ly/8DphhHR

11/23/2025

What do you do when you’re a blind 16.5 year old Chihuahua who wandered away from your home and found yourself trapped near a creek? 🥺

You wait for the kindness of strangers and the quick response of our shelter staff! 💗

Senior pup Oreo was missing from his home for over 24 hours when a Good Samaritan passing by a creek saw the pup shivering by the rocks. 😢 Unsure how to safely get down to the dog himself, he called our ASOs, who were able to retrieve Oreo and bring him back to the shelter. He wasn’t microchipped, but once we posted his intake on our Shelter Admissions page, we quickly found his owner! It turns out he had only gone about four blocks from home.

Less than half an hour later, Oreo’s family rushed to ACPS to be reunited, and to say we were all teary eyed was an understatement. ❤️

Team ACPS is always grateful for the amazing work our officers do in the field… and we’re always down to talk about what do if a pet goes missing (and how to prevent it in the first place). Got questions? Drop them in the comments below!

11/22/2025

This is Lyle, a 1.5 year old dog our vet techs have bonded with during his month at the shelter. Lyle was likely hit by a car and is slowly getting healthy, and we’re so happy to show off just a few clips of his progress… but he’s still got a long way to go.

Lyle needs you—ask us about him. Ask us how fostering saves lives. Email [email protected] to learn more ❤️

Sooo many AMAZING dog adoptions today! From Short Kings to Super Duper Tall Kings to everything in between, tons of shel...
11/21/2025

Sooo many AMAZING dog adoptions today! From Short Kings to Super Duper Tall Kings to everything in between, tons of shelter pups found loving homes. 🥹💕

Doxie lovers, thank you for literally camping out all night to take a pup home—and to all of our lovers of other pups, thank you for showing up in DROVES to fall in love and help us save lives. Our lobby was full of new families from open to close today, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Happy tails to everyone!! ❤️

Duval, thank you for supporting !

Alright, Doxie lovers: tomorrow we have 19 Dachshunds available for loving homes 💗We had a HUGE rush of adopters the las...
11/20/2025

Alright, Doxie lovers: tomorrow we have 19 Dachshunds available for loving homes 💗

We had a HUGE rush of adopters the last go around, so to keep it as fair and organized as possible, here’s the need-to-know:

🌭 The Short Kings (and queens) featured in these posts are who we have available to go home. See some who tug at your heart strings?? Great! Take a note of the numbers on their photos.

🌭 ACPS is open EARLY tomorrow to accommodate our Dollar Dog enthusiasts. At 10:00, our staff will open the doors—ONLY for doxie adoptions. So get in line as soon as you can! Think old school Black Friday camping out, life-saving style.

🌭 When our team comes down the line prior to opening, they’ll ask you which number you’d like to take home. If that pup has been claimed already, no worries! We’ll ask for other choices.

🌭 The dachshunds—just like ALL of our adoptions—are first come, first served. When they’ve all found homes, they’ve all found homes. But we can introduce you to SO many other pups if you have time to stick around!

💖 All Shawtys and Long Boys will go home with our typical adoption materials (medical records, training information, and other resources) as well as Dachshund-specific handouts regarding health and behavioral info.

✨ All doxie adoptions happen TOMORROW at 10:00! Be here IN PERSON: 2020 Forest Street in Jacksonville, Florida ❤️

Well folks... the rumors are true! 🌭 🐶 The Dachshund-related news you've all been waiting for is (almost) here—we'll be ...
11/20/2025

Well folks... the rumors are true! 🌭 🐶 The Dachshund-related news you've all been waiting for is (almost) here—we'll be updating our Facebook and Instagram pages at ✨ 6:00 PM ✨ with all of the details about how you can adopt your very own hot dog with legs TOMORROW!! 💖🤪

So sit back, relax, and wait for the information EXCLUSIVELY on our Facebook and Instagram.

No seriously, dachshund lovers—sit back and relax today. We’ll post instructions for y’all at 6:00 PM tonight. For those who wanna meet non-hot dogs, come to the shelter ASAP! We have hundreds waiting for you.

We've got two words for you: gentle. giant.Two more words? Joe Dirt!Don't let his size fool you: this pup is 82 pounds o...
11/19/2025

We've got two words for you: gentle. giant.

Two more words? Joe Dirt!

Don't let his size fool you: this pup is 82 pounds of pure smoosh and his favorite things are snuggles, snacks, and sunshine naps (are you sensing a theme here?). He's a slow-moving, attention-loving guy who can't wait to meet you 🌞 🐾

Joe Dirt is available for adoption and foster at ACPS, so ask to meet him! We're open seven days a week at 2020 Forest Street. 💖

Dog Day Out turned dog day in (the family) 💕 While that may not be the catchiest headline, this IS the cutest story we'v...
11/18/2025

Dog Day Out turned dog day in (the family) 💕

While that may not be the catchiest headline, this IS the cutest story we've heard in a while! A couple of weeks ago, Ms. Rios stopped by the shelter on a whim to do a Dogs Around Duval trip, or DDO. She was paired up with a sweet, snuggly young pup named Mavis Dracula, and the two of them spent the day at Riverside Park. Time FLEW by and before she knew it, she had to return Mavis to the shelter.

Ms. Rios spent the next couple of days showing off the adorable pictures and videos she took (I mean, how could you not??) and realized it was meant to be. She picked Mavis up a few days later as a foster, totally fell in love, then made it OFFICIAL.

Happy Tails to both of you! The absolute sweetest story 🥳 💖

PS: want to learn more about the Dogs Around Duval program? Check out the comments to learn all about getting started with DDOs!

Duuuuvallll! 🏈 📢 We had a great time tailgating and cheering on the Jags to a HUGE win yesterday. This city—including it...
11/17/2025

Duuuuvallll! 🏈 📢

We had a great time tailgating and cheering on the Jags to a HUGE win yesterday. This city—including its animals!—LOVES this team, through thick and thin and through better and worse... and if that isn't the perfect metaphor for how hard we work for the animals in this city, we don't know what is 🤪 And as the City of Jacksonville, Florida - Government shelter, we can't wait to continue to get out in the community in ways we haven't before.

Soo that being said: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Jacksonville Sharks Sporting JAX Jacksonville Icemen Jacksonville Armada FC Jacksonville Axemen Rugby League ... who are our pups tailgating next??

In the meantime, ACPS is open 12:00 - 7:00 seven days a week, ready to connect you with your future sports-watching buddy. ❤️ 🐆

Jacksonville Jaguars

Address

2020 Forest Street
Jacksonville, FL
32204

Opening Hours

Monday 12pm - 7pm
Tuesday 12pm - 7pm
Wednesday 12pm - 7pm
Thursday 12pm - 7pm
Friday 12pm - 7pm
Saturday 12am - 7pm
Sunday 12am - 7pm

Telephone

+19046302489

Website

https://linktr.ee/acpsjax

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