Sheriff’s Animal Farm – Stock Island, Florida
Inside the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm — the only sanctuary of its kind in America, tucked under a working detention center on Stock Island.
Sheriff’s Animal Farm – Stock Island, Florida
There is a place on Stock Island where an emu named Kramer greets the morning, a lemur keeps a watchful eye on the crowd, and a sloth named Mo hangs from a beam with the unbothered patience of someone who has nowhere to be. It is free to visit, beloved by locals, and almost impossible to believe until you’re standing in it — because it sits directly beneath a working jail.
Sheriff’s Animal Farm – Stock Island, Florida
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm is widely believed to be the only animal sanctuary in the country located on the grounds of a detention center. For more than three decades it has been quietly doing one of the most Key West things imaginable: giving second chances to the creatures no one else would take.
It started with a few ducks
The story begins in 1994, when sheriff’s deputies noticed neighborhood ducks being struck by cars near a golf course beside the jail. A deputy suggested relocating them to an unused patch of land beneath the detention center — a building raised eleven feet off the ground to clear hurricane floodwaters, leaving cool, shaded space underneath. The ducks settled in. Then word spread across what locals affectionately call the “coconut telegraph,” and people began arriving with animals that had nowhere else to go.
Today, that two-thirds of an acre is home to roughly 150 animals across some 45 species — every one of them abandoned, abused, confiscated, or surrendered. Miniature horses, pigs, goats, sheep, tortoises, alligators, exotic snakes, kinkajous, a quartet of alpacas, and an ostrich all share the grounds. There was even a binturong that briefly sent the entire island to their search bars trying to figure out what, exactly, had moved in.
“When an animal arrives here, it’s home — for life.”
The woman who made it a home
Much of what the farm is today traces back to Jeanne Selander — “Farmer Jeanne” to the children, families, and inmates who know her. A marine biologist by training and a former assistant curator at the Key West Aquarium, she took the reins of a struggling operation and reimagined it as a true sanctuary. Her guiding principle is simple and unwavering: when an animal arrives, it stays. As she puts it, “An animal has a commitment for its lifetime.”
Sheriff’s Animal Farm – Stock Island, Florida
She has weathered hurricanes here — once coaxing horses and alpacas into the jail’s elevator to shelter them in empty cells during Irma — and has mentored well over a thousand inmate trusties who help care for the animals. And then there is Mo, the farm’s undisputed celebrity. Jeanne has been known to take him to community events up and down the Keys, where he wraps himself around her with what looks, to everyone watching, like pure affection. Her gentle correction: he simply thinks she’s a tree.
Second chances, on both sides of the leash
What makes this place extraordinary isn’t only the animals — it’s who cares for them. The farm is tended by carefully screened, low-risk detention-center residents, and the work changes them. Tending a frightened, formerly-abused animal asks for patience, gentleness, and the slow building of trust; many of the caretakers, offered one day off each week, choose to spend it at the farm anyway. The animals learn that not every hand is a threat. So, often, do the people caring for them. Healing, it turns out, runs in both directions.
Meet a few of the residents
Mo the Sloth — the farm’s most famous face, equal parts mascot and meditation teacher.
Kramer the Emu — tall, curious, and not above stealing the spotlight.
The Alpaca Crew — Snowflake, Arabella, Lilo, and Stitch, soft-eyed and endlessly photogenic.
Kelsey the Lemur — bright-eyed, wide-awake, and watching everything you do.
River’s Wish: a soft place for old dogs to land
Jeanne’s devotion to animals doesn’t end at the farm gate. Through River’s Wish Inc, her senior-dog sanctuary, she takes in the gray-muzzled chihuahuas that shelters struggle to place — the ones with behavioral quirks or chronic illness, the hospice cases, the ones, in her words, that no one else wants. Her promise to each of them is to provide only their best days.
The sanctuary is named for Old Man River, a nearly hairless, mostly toothless chihuahua surrendered at nineteen after his owner passed away. Cranky, beloved, and utterly unforgettable, he became a local ambassador for senior-dog adoption before passing just shy of his twenty-first birthday. River’s Wish carries his name forward, one rescued old soul at a time.
How to visit — and how to help
The farm welcomes the public on the second and fourth Sundays of each month, from 1 to 3 p.m. Admission is free, though donations are gratefully accepted and go directly toward feed, veterinary care, and habitat upkeep. It’s an easy, joyful outing for families — and a genuinely moving one for anyone who appreciates a good second-chance story. Time your visit around one of the farm’s beloved seasonal celebrations near Easter and the holidays, and you’ll see the place at its most magical.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
When: 2nd & 4th Sundays of each month, 1–3 p.m.
Where: Off College Road, Stock Island — on the grounds of the Sheriff’s Office detention center
Cost: Free — donations gratefully welcomed
Give from anywhere: Amazon Wish List – https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/157W2EJF2JK9N/ (If you have trouble ordering from the wish list, please use our mailing address: MCSO Animal Farm, 5501 College Rd, Key West, FL 33040, Attn: Farmer Jeanne)
Follow along: facebook.com/keysanimalfarm
In a town full of remarkable stories, this one stays with you: a place where the most overlooked animals — and the people caring for them — are given room to begin again. That’s a kind of homecoming we believe in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can you really visit an animal sanctuary at a jail?
A: Yes. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm sits beneath the elevated Stock Island detention center and is believed to be the only sanctuary of its kind in the United States. It’s open to the public and family-friendly.
Q: When is it open, and how much does it cost?
A: The farm opens on the second and fourth Sundays of each month from 1 to 3 p.m. Admission is free; donations are appreciated.
Q: What animals live there?
A: Roughly 150 animals across about 45 species, including a sloth, a lemur, alpacas, an emu, an ostrich, miniature horses, pigs, goats, tortoises, and more — all rescued, and all there for life.
Q: How can I help if I can’t visit?
A: You can ship supplies directly to the animals through the farm’s Amazon Wish List, make a donation, or follow and share the farm on Facebook to spread the word.