Contact us at 05 53 04 16 54
You’ve just found a stray animal and taken it in, but you don’t know what to do with it.
One of the first things to do if you can, is to take it to a veterinarian. He can look for a tattoo or a microchip in order to identify the animal; this will give you details of the owner.
Contact the local authorities (Marie) of the town in which you have found the animal. They will tell you as to which shelter they have signed an agreement with. Each Marie has an obligation to such an agreement for stray animals in their commune. They can also inform you if the animal was reported missing with them.
The council must arrange the transportation of the stray to the shelter they have an agreement with, where it will be taken in. You have to know that you cannot submit a found animal into this shelter yourself; if you do they might consider you to be the owner of the animal.
When an animal arrives at our refuge, we will look for its identification; if there is one we will inform the official bodies. One cannot detect a microchip with the eye; the veterinarians and refuges will have a scanner. A tattoo is visible at the inside of the ear, or on the inner thigh of an animal.
It will be more difficult to find the owners of animals without any identification. We will search in our files for a reported loss and if we find a match we will contact the people involved.
An animal found remains impounded for a period of 8 working days, to allow its owners to pick it up. After this period the animal will be put up for adoption. With regards to euthanasia, many people think that animals are doomed after one or two years at the shelter. You should know that every SPA has its own policy, but in our case we have animals that have been with us for many years ready and waiting for a family; we do not look at the number of years, but only at the general state of them and their behaviour...
Wildlife
Avoid touching wild animals that look healthy, only try to catch them if they appear sick or injured.
- For birds: contact the League of Protection of Birds in the Gironde:
- For deer, wild boars ...: know that it is forbidden to care for them at home.