St. Augustine-based animal rescue group FUR aims to save as many dogs as it can from harm’s way

St. Augustine-based animal rescue group FUR aims to save as many dogs as it can from harm’s way

Mike Merrill, founder of Florida Urgent Rescue, says he puts in more than 80 hours a week saving dogs. He’s had fingers bitten, entered condemned buildings, been swarmed by fleas. Yet still, he criss-crosses Northeast Florida logging about 200 miles a day in the hopes that just one more pup might find a loving home.

Merrill’s FUR T-shirt says it all: “I Rescue Because Their Lives Matter.”

If his and other rescue organizations didn’t exist, more animals would be facing almost certain death in shelters, especially those who are older, injured or have behavioral problems.



In February, 40 dogs were brought into the St. Johns County Department of Animal Control, either surrendered by their owner or impounded as strays or aggressive dogs. Of those 40, 32 were euthanized, according to records kept by the animal control department.

“A shelter should be a place where a stray can land and it’s supposed to be just that — a shelter — it’s not supposed to be a death camp,” said Merrill.

A former Army officer, Merrill owned his own tech firm most of his career. A little over two years ago, the St. Augustine resident launched FUR and in that time Merrill, two other workers and a brigade of volunteers have saved nearly 800 dogs (and a few cats) in St. Johns County and other areas of Florida.

“I feel like I’m doing the first most important thing in my life,” Merrill said. “I feel like I’ve finally found my calling.”

On a recent day in the field, Merrill’s first stop was a subdivision in St. Johns where a woman was trying to trap a female boxer who’d escaped a foster home when a landscaper accidentally left a gate open. For nearly two years a concerned neighbor who’d see the boxer in the nearby woods had tried unsuccessfully to catch the wayward canine and bring her home.

“She’s in the woods here somewhere,” Merrill said, gesturing around at the surrounding forest.
He inspected the box trap Christie DiCarlo was using.



“This is what they’re trying to capture her in,” Merrill explained. “It’s not going to work; it’s too low and narrow. I want to make it taller and bigger so it doesn’t scare her.”

Dog and Cats

Lending traps or building custom ones is just one of the ways FUR tries to boost the odds that a dog may find his or her way to a good family. Sometimes, it involves problem solving.

“Every dog is different, every rescue is different and every single time we learn something new,” Merrill said.

DiCarlo said she leaves food for the dog, sometimes a rotisserie chicken, and sees her come and get it each night.

“But as soon as she sees me, she’s gone,” DiCarlo said. “I was so worried about her during those last hurricanes.”

In other cases, dogs have been abandoned or mistreated like Sami, a severely injured puppy The Record wrote about in February. When Merrill found her, her skin and fur were raw and bloody after FUR believes she was likely thrown from a moving vehicle. The dog is doing better and in foster care until she’s fully healed.