Pet owners across the Belle Fourche area brought their dogs and cats to the Belle Fourche Vet Clinic on Saturday, May 3 for the low-cost rabies vaccination event. The line went out the door as people were eager to get their pets vaccinated.
In addition to $7 rabies shots—which typically cost $18 per animal—customers were able to register their pets with free city pet licenses, which usually cost $5 or $10 depending on spayed or neutered status. All-in-all, pet owners were able to save up to $21 per animal.
“It’s a way for us to just educate people and get the awareness out that they need to get their animal up to date on their rabies vaccine. When we have dog bites, we have dog to dog and dog to human. Dog to dog, it gets serious.
But when it’s dog to human, it gets a lot more serious,” explained Clint Haffner, Animal Control Officer. “By offering a clinic and giving everybody opportunity, we can hopefully prevent some issues going forward.”
The low-cost rabies vaccination event has been a joint effort between the city and Belle Fourche Vet Clinic since 2016 and typically draws around 500 people, according to Haffner. Volunteers, including Patty Niesant, Suzanne Campbell, Nikki Hoyme, Chuck Lawless, Twyla Hendrickson, Andrea Pedersen, and Kasten Pedersen, spent the morning registering pets with the city.
“What I like the most out of it, from my standpoint, is the education on animal safety situations, and then all the volunteers that come in,” said Haffner. “We do this every year, and it’s just a matter of the volunteers, because that’s what makes it go.”
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