The article analyzes the concept of “stray animals” provided in Russia, both from the point of view of potential competition between the norms of the Civil Code and Federal Law No. 498- FZ and in comparison with the foreign approach. The article offers the author’s vision of the legal “groups” of stray animals and establishes the application limits of the responsible treatment to such animals, which include the non-identical legal status of different groups of stray animals in Russia. Thus, the author distinguishes three categories: (i) stray animals, (ii) animals without owners, and (iii) animals that have been relinquished. The article proves that “stray animal” is general term which includes companion animals and farm animals, while “animals without owners” and “animals that have been relinquished” are only a variety of stray companion animals. The author compared the current regulation of the constituent entities of the Russia in terms of the procedure for identifying animals when catching and the possibility of catching owned animals. Also, it shows the results of author’s research of the entire regional legislation on the criteria of stray animals catching. Moreover, the article highlights the admissibility of euthanasia of stray animals both from the point of view of the current regulation and of humanity, and foreign approaches to euthanasia. The author studied the issues of humanity and effectiveness of the program for controlling the number of stray animals in Russia using the method caught-sterilization-vaccination-release, compared it with other methods used and presented an analysis of the experience of European countries in the implementation of stray animals control programs.