Intake

Surrendering a Pet or Stray

Beginning Wednesday, April 2, 2025 MOAS will no longer require appointments for animal intakes. Please read below for intake requirements and hours.

If temporary assistance might enable you to keep your pet in your family, please talk to shelter staff to see if we might be able to help. Our Community Pet Food Bank is one of the many ways we try to help keep people and their pets together. We can also refer you to local trainers who can help you work through most behavioral issues as well as online resources that might help you. 

Intake Hours: Wednesday-Friday from 12:00pm - 4:00pm

The Madison-Oglethorpe Animal Shelter has contracted with Madison and Oglethorpe counties to provide intake of stray or unwanted animals. As part of that contract, the shelter is required to accept all cats and dogs surrendered by Madison or Oglethorpe County residents. The shelter ONLY accepts animals from residents of Madison or Oglethorpe County, and when you bring an animal to the shelter, you will be required to show proof of residency before you will be allowed to surrender the animal.

There is no fee to surrender a pet/stray, but we do accept donations for the care of the animal that you are surrendering. 

Also, if you're bringing in stray kittens or puppies, please ask us about options to trap and alter the parents. If you just bring us the babies, the parents will be free to reproduce again shortly afterward, and the cycle will just continue. We want to help you get the problem permanently under control, and altering the adults is the number one way to do that!

Animals that are surrendered as stray animals to our shelter are put on a 3 day stray hold to give owners a chance to reclaim their pets. (Day 1 begins the following business day after the pet arrives at the shelter and Day 3 ends the following business day when we open at 12pm.) After 3 days if no one comes forward the pet will be available for adoption to the first approved applicant on that day.