Monroe County Sheriff's Office Animal Farm

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm occupies the open ground underneath the elevated Stock Island Detention Center at 5501 College Road, which is as unlikely a setting for a zoo as the Keys can offer. It began in 1994 for a practical reason: Muscovy ducks kept getting hit by cars crossing the road between the golf course and the jail, and someone decided to give them somewhere safer to be.

It grew from there. Roughly 120 animals now live on the farm, all of them rescues that were abandoned, abused, confiscated or surrendered, and most of them species you will not meet anywhere else in the Keys. Residents have included a capybara, an alpaca, a kinkajou, an armadillo, an emu, an ostrich, lemurs, hedgehogs, miniature horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, pigs, geese, boa constrictors and a crocodile. For years the best known resident was Mo the sloth, who lived to 18.

The animals are cared for by inmates from the detention center above, who come down daily to feed, water and clean, follow the veterinarian on rounds and help with hoof trims and nail clipping. The bonds that form are the reason the program has drawn national attention: some inmates come in on their days off, and some return after release with their families to visit the animal they looked after. Jeanne Selander, known locally as Farmer Jeanne, has run the farm for close to two decades.

Visiting takes planning, because the gates open for just four hours a month. The farm welcomes the public on the second and fourth Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m., admission is free, and donations go toward the animals’ care. It is one of the better things to do with children in Key West and one of the few free ones, but only if you are here on the right Sunday.