{"id":673149,"date":"2026-05-30T00:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T00:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/673149\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T00:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T00:30:09","slug":"aylas-acres-to-break-ground-on-10000-sf-animal-resource-center-in-st-johns-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/673149\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayla’s Acres to break ground on 10,000 sf animal resource center in St. Johns County"},"content":{"rendered":"

After three floods and two fires, Ayla’s Acres Animal Rescue readies to construct long-planned animal shelter and education center<\/p>\n

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 An animal rescue program has big plans. Ayla’s Acres Animal Rescue has been trying to build a first of its kind animal resource center in St. Johns County for years, but tragedy and disasters have gotten in the way.<\/p>\n

Now, the group is moving forward with construction of the facility.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Executive Director Fran Charleson rolled out blue prints and schematics of the facility for First Coast News viewers. \u00a0She has had a vision for an animal resource center in St. Johns County for nine years.<\/p>\n


\n \"\" <\/p>\n


\n This story continues below. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n More in Local \n <\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

\"\"
\n
\n <\/p>\n


\n
\n Neighbors oppose new Jacksonville puppy store before it opens, store manager responds
\n \n <\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

Currently, Ayla\u2019s Acres does not have a shelter or facility. It simply places animals with foster homes until they\u2019re adopted out, but this 10,000 square foot building would change things.<\/p>\n

Not immediately, but we are going to be building a feral cat area that will hold about 40 feral cats,” Charleson said. “This will be part of our trap neuter and release work that we do.”<\/p>\n

She added, “We\u2019re going to have seminars for adults and field trips for kids.”<\/p>\n

The ground breaking will take place Saturday, May 30, at 10 a.m. on the corner of County Road 208 and 13A, near Pacetti Road.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken nine years to get this far because of tragedies.<\/p>\n

At least three hurricanes flooded the Ayla’s Acres thrift store in St. Augustine. The thrift store is the organization’s primary money maker.<\/p>\n

And then two fires ravaged the group\u2019s property in the panhandle that housed cats, dogs, and farm animals. Some of the animals died in the fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charleson somberly noted, “I don\u2019t want any more animals dying from fire. I can\u2019t tell you how horrific that was.”<\/p>\n

So this new facility will have extensive safety measures in place<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re going to have sprinkler systems, fire protection, a fire hydrant 1,000 feet away from the caretaker house.”<\/p>\n

Charleson said the need for this kind of animal shelter and education center is needed more now than it was nine years ago.<\/p>\n

“The need has grown exponentially because of all he growth in the area and because St. Johns County does not have a formal trap\/neuter\/release program. So (the county) has relied on all of these rescues, including us to take care of that.”<\/p>\n

Ayla\u2019s Acres is still fundraising and will build the facility in phases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After three floods and two fires, Ayla’s Acres Animal Rescue readies to construct long-planned animal shelter and education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-673149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}