Pets, owners enjoy beautiful day at Nebraska Humane Society fundraiser
The Margre Durham Walk & Dog Fest on Sunday hit its mark of raising $270,000 for the Nebraska Humane Society while giving pets and owners some fun in the sun.
"The weather is awesome, and we don't always get that," Steven Elonich of the Nebraska Humane Society said Sunday. "It's about 30 minutes (before the start of the event) and we've already hit our (fundraising) goal."
In addition to the fun of people and pet watching, the festival includes games, food, a beer garden, giveaways, an adoptable dog parade and a silent auction. The mile walk on the Keystone Trail, one of the event's highlights, began at 1 p.m.
Elonich estimated about 1,200 people and their pets meandered through the meadow just east of the shelter at 8929 Fort St. The festival began 35 years ago and is the biggest annual fundraiser for the Nebraska Humane Society.
"It was a really awesome turnout," Elonich said. "We had lots of people, lots of sponsors and a really great bunch of rescue (dog) groups. I think a lot of the groups were able to find homes for their animals."
Kristi LeGrande of Haven Animal Rescue Nebraska said her group was thrilled with the turnout at the festival. A lot of people visited their booth and showed genuine interest in adopting.
"This is our first year with this group, although a lot of us have rescue experience," LeGrande said. "The turnout today was extremely good with all of our dogs getting interest for adoptions. I think we're going to see a lot of adoptions occur after we go through all the paperwork."
The Lost Pets of Omaha Area group stayed particularly busy helping owners get microchips for their pets. The microchips are almost as big as a grain of rice and use a unique radio-frequency identification code to reveal the pet owner's contact information when scanned.
Microchips are implanted under the pet's skin using a syringe-like device usually between the shoulder blades. Afterward, the owner needs to register the microchip online to get their contact information stored in a pet recovery database.
On its Facebook page, Lost Pets of Omaha Area, said it partners the American Animal Hospital to offer $10 microchips. A search of the internet found microchips priced between $25 and $60, including implanting of the chip and filing the registration.
Kathy Eaton, who founded of the Lost Pets of Omaha Area in 2014, said it was the group's first time at the event. She said 18 or 19 pets had microchips implanted Sunday with a volunteer completing the registration work.
"Anyone can get the discount just by contacting the American Animal Hospital and mentioning Lost Pets of Omaha Area," Eaton said. "We even had one dog that we had just reunited with its owner get a microchip, and that was really cool."
