Thank you for contacting the city again. Yes we understand that there is a stray problem in Jacksonville. It is caused from people not spaying and neutering their pets and then letting them out without leashes as per our city ordinances. We are certainly working on the problem and there is not an overnight cure. Animal Control was out there in that area yesterday looking for strays. Animal Control responding within 10 minutes of a call and did not locate any animals. They were on Canada, Bailey,and all throughout university hills. We are slowly picking up strays and returning the ones that belong to people and issuing them citations for ordinance violations.

We appreciate your hard work but many are very frustrated by all of the stray animals. Some of these poor animals do not look like they have a home.

They get into trash, hurt people's pets, cause children not to be able to play in their yard, chase walkers/joggers, and are an eyesore in our town.

What can citizens do to help these dogs get picked up? Some have been reported before and are still roaming.

Thank you for your contacting the city. We truly are actively working on the problem. We have 10 kennels at the shelter for dogs. We have to keep the dogs for a certain time period. We have picked up about 10-12 dogs in the last week. Unfortunately this problem did not occur over night. I promise you we are doing everything the city can to get the problem solved with the stray animal situation. But it will take more than a few days to fix. If the public can assist us with watching where some of these animals go, it will help us to locate the ones that have owners and we can cite them for any city ordinance violations. That would be a great help to animal control. . Please if possible, something else that the citizens can do to help is pass this information around that Jacksonville does have a leash law and animals need to be behind a fence or on a trolley system or a leash. These are city ordinance violations that can result in a citation. Thanks Again just know we are working on the problem.

Multiple posts on Facebook today about stray dogs in our town..........makes our town look bad.

What needs to happen to make the stray dog problem go away? What can we do in addition to reporting the problems?

Animal Control has been patrolling in this area all different times of the day. We have ask that patrol officers at night be on the look out also. We are setting some traps in the neighborhood in hopes of catching the dog(s). Please bear with us as we are trying but their are probably 300 + animals running loose in Jacksonville. Thanks Again for contacting the city just know we are trying to work on the stray population in Jacksonville.

Your concern/issue has been resolved. Thank you for working with the City of Jacksonville.