By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Rabies can be fatal for pets and it's important to get them vaccinated to prevent it, and St. Joseph Animal Control and Rescue is helping.
Rabies vaccinations and several other services are being provided during two vaccination clinics this week.
Senior Animal Control Specialist Aubrey Silvey says the purpose of these clinics is to help provide vaccinations, among other services, at a lower cost.
"The purpose is just to help people get their animals up to date on vaccinations, especially people who might not be able afford to take their animal to the vets office and pay all those fees up front," Silvey tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Silvey says typically rabies vaccinations will be between 25 and 45 dollars depending on your vet, plus fees, but at the clinic they cost 5 dollars.
Silvey says it's very important to get your pets vaccinated from rabies.
"Because your pets will come into contact with wildlife outdoors, or potentially another domesticated animal cats are running around outside all the time, so they're going to come into contact with other animals," Silvey explains. "And it's really important that they're protected against rabies because if they do get rabies, it's fatal, if your pet has rabies and they bite you, rabies fatal, so we don't want rabies around."
Silvey says for the most part rabies has been eradicated in domesticated pets, but it's important to keep it up by continuing to vaccinate your pets.
Silvey says rabies is very common in bats and raccoons in Missouri, and while locally we have only seen one case recently.
"It does happen all over Missouri, all over the country particularly in wildlife and mostly we're looking at bats and raccoons which are very common in our area, so again that's why it's super important" Silvey says. "You might not ever know if your animal is exposed to a bat that has rabies because if it's outdoors it could happen and be gone and you never see it, and so it's really important that they're vaccinated and protected against that."
Clinics will be held on Tuesday at Skaith Elementary and Thursday at Mark Twain Elementary, both from 6 to 8pm.
Along with the rabies vaccine, city registration, microchips, and nail trimmings among other services will also be provided. Payments must be made in cash.