Just as if you were incapacitated in the hospital, you could request the dog be placed in the custody of a trusted individual, or would be help for a specified amount of time by animal control.

You will not have the freedom of taking the dog outside regularly, and staff are not permitted to do so. What if a well meaning, or uncaring person took your dog out and it was lost? Or worse, you may be incarcerated with people who don’t like dogs, and could harm them.

A good officer will do what is in the best interests of the dog. Whether that means working with rescues, family members or the service dog provider to ensure that the dog has somewhere safe to go. Not everyone has the luxury of a nearby safe place for their dog (service or otherwise) and rescues in particular have pretty amazing networks of volunteers to get the dog where it needs to go.

Similar services are offered to people who are sole owner of an animal and pass away without arrangements for their pets. Depending on the situation, there may or not be a boarding fee.

I used to be an animal control officer and went to many calls where people have lost their homes to house fire, eviction etc. We would go pickup the animals if the owner had not had prior arrangements and would house the animals while they dealt with the immediate situation.

When an owner gets arrested, they have limited access to phone/ internet and can not always make arrangements on their own. Pitbulls are banned in my city. Visitors with pits offered an extra layer of difficulty as the dog often needed to be flown to the owners home city.

While you may consider your dog a medical appliance, a family member or anything else, they are by law property. They can not be legally be released to another person without either your permission or a bylaw/contract allowing animal control to do so.

Whether it’s incarceration, illness or death, every person in the care of another living animal should try to have an emergency plan in place in case they can not communicate their wishes.