SPCA Florida is a managed intake organization that serves Polk County only. To maintain our No Kill status, we schedule appointments when we have an open cage or kennel. Because of this, we keep an active waiting list to serve community members who have applied to surrender a pet.
Your Options
We understand it is a difficult decision to rehome/surrender your pet. Our goal is always to help you keep your pet at home. We have many resources available including low-cost veterinary care, food assistance, behavior assistance, and training resources to help you keep your pet in your home.
Rehoming Your Pet
We recommend researching our rehoming resources first. Avoiding a shelter environment is less stressful for your pet and better for the wellbeing of the animal.
Surrendering Your Pet
Steps To Surrender:
Determine which of our programs meets your needs.
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Foster Program - Underage animals (younger than 2 months old) go to our foster program. Please send your information and photos to foster@spcaflorida.org. If you are unsure of a kitten's age please see link for assistance. https://www.alleycat.org/resources/kitten-progression/
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Mom's Last Litter - If your female dog/cat had an “oopsie” litter and you want to keep mom but surrender her litter, check out our Mom’s Last Litter program. We accept the litter to place for adoption and spay mom (and neuter dad) for FREE. Go to https://www.spcaflorida.org/lastlitter and fill out an application.
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Surrender - Our surrender program is for animals of an adoptable age (2months or older). Applications are required.
Submit a surrender application. All pets must qualify medically and behaviorally for our program.
Once your application is received, we will add you to our waiting list. Please add the surrender email address to your contact list. We do monthly check-ins via email until we have space to bring your pet in.​​​​​
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You will be called and emailed when we have an appointment available for your pet(s). There is a non-refundable $25 surrender deposit due at the time the appointment is made to confirm your appointment. This amount is taken from the surrender fee when you bring your pet in.
Surrender fees are as follows:
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Single animal $45
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Litter $75
The following information should be brought to your surrender appointment:
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Driver’s License
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Pet(s) veterinary records
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Your pet(s) medications and/or special diet foods, if required.
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Payment for the surrender fee. We accept cash and credit.
NOTE: When you surrender your pet, you give up all owner rights. We cannot share any information with you about the pet, its new owners, or its status once you have surrendered.
Found a Stray
SPCA Florida does not have a contract with the county to accept strays. Please follow these steps to try to reunite the pet with its owner.
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Bring the pet to a shelter or veterinary clinic to be scanned for a microchip.
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Contact Polk County Animal Control with a found pet report.
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Post found reports on Petco Love Lost, Facebook Lost and Found pages, and the Nextdoor app.
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If you have done these things, and can hold onto the pet temporarily, you are able to fill out a surrender application. We will then work to get the pet into our program.
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If you cannot hold the pet, Polk County Animal Control is your county shelter.
We make weekly trips to animal control to pull animals when we have space.