Animal Service Officers

Meet Your Animal Services Officer

There's a person in our community who works to protect stray, injured, abused, and unwanted animals. This person also helps the people who live in Manatee County deal with problems caused by animals.

I am your local animal care and control professional. I'm the one who responds to calls about neglected or lost animals, and I'm often the first person to provide comfort and compassion to animals in need. I work in the Public Safety Department of Manatee County Government.

Long gone is the term dogcatcher and the image of a man with a butterfly net. Animal care and control officers now do a variety of things that help animals as well as people: rescuing injured animals, controlling stray and potentially dangerous animals roaming at large, and bringing lost pets to our animal shelter where their owners can reclaim them. We also work with other local agencies, such as social services and law enforcement, to protect all members of families, both two-legged and four-legged.

Animal Shelter

Image Animal Shelter

The Animal Services Division has a shelter to care for stray dogs and cats who are captured and held in the shelter when animal laws are broken. We also keep animals for rabies observation by the Manatee County Health Department in our shelter in a special area so that other animals will not catch rabies from them.

You can visit us at our shelter, which is located at 305 25th Street West in Palmetto, or call us to report a stray animal at 742-5933. There are two other shelters in the community that are not operated by the County where you can also go to adopt a pet.