BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The cost of vet bills is something that can easily become a burden, even for simple annual vaccine visits, and sometimes can be the difference in keeping or surrendering a pet.
“Animals are so important to households, they provide health, wealth, and home to people…a lot of times you live by themselves, and the only person they have to come home to is their animal,” said Baton Rouge District 5 Councilman Darryl Hurst.
Councilman Hurst partnered with LSU Vet School and Companion Animal Alliance to give free pet vaccines to areas that need them.
“We changed the law a year ago that allows Companion Animal Alliance to be able to provide various services, primarily to underserved areas,” he added.
This is not the first free clinic that Councilman Hurst has hosted, but the clinic was brought back quickly after the last clinic had lines so long, they had to turn away nearly 100 cars.
“The lines that we’ve had, for people to wait three or four hours for vaccination, it speaks volumes about how important it is, especially in today’s times when money is being stressed from bill to post,” explained Councilman Hurst.
According to the LSU Vet School, the importance of making sure all pets have access to vaccinations is not just for the animals.
“Legally rabies vaccine is required, rabies is a disease that can affect people, and it can be transmitted to people, and it can be fatal, so being able to provide at least the rabies vaccination to these dogs or cats is super important to the health of people as well,” said Krista Miller, LSU Community Outreach Veterinarian.
Today’s vaccines also included the parvo shot, which prevents a disease that can be fatal to your animals, which is why they encourage all animals to have it.
“It’s a very debilitating disease, often fatal disease, and puppies and other diseases that cats have as well, so being able to keep the pet healthy intern keeps the people in these communities healthy you as well,” added Miller.
Councilman Hurst tells us that after seeing the need, they are considering making this event a quarterly, or even monthly event.
You can find more information on the Companion Animal Alliance on their website.
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