Santa Barbara County offering free protective services to pet owners for 4th of July holiday

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Santa Barbara County is getting pet owners ready for the upcoming 4th of July holiday by providing a number of free protective services for their animals.

Leading up to the Independence Day celebrations, Santa Barbara County Animal Services has been messaging the public about the potential dangers some of the festivities may bring, particularly loud explosive fireworks, as well as some of the safety precautions pet owners should take.

"The 4th of July is very dangerous time for pets," said Animal Services Community Outreach Coordinator Esme Medina. "There's a lot of pets that try to run away from the noise, and they'll do whatever they can to get away from the noise."

To help reduce the number of animals who will flee their home, Animal Services is providing free crates that pet owners may use temporarily to shelter their animals.

"We have a program in the 4th of July time where we do a we call it a crate rental, but there are no fees associated with it," added Medina. "We check out a crate to a family that needs it to keep their pet safe and secure into their in their household. A lot of pets are home pets, so they don't ever have to be in a crate, but with times like this, we do want to secure them and make sure that they're safe in a small area. This is a free of no charge. People can come into our shelters. any, any time during regular business hours, and all we ask is a couple information regarding the pets so we can match up the appropriate size crate to the appropriate size dog."

Animal Services is also providing pet owners with collars and identification tags that could also help with reunification efforts should a pet become lost during the holiday period.

"The temporary tag that provides a number associated with the pet and we link them into the database, with the owner information," said Medina. "We encourage people to put a collar and a tag on the pet to make sure that if they happen to get out, a microchip isn't identifiable from the outside, so you want to make sure that if you happen to see a pet with a with the collar or tag, we're able to retrieve the pet right away and reunite them as soon as possible."

All week long the department is also providing pet owners with an opportunity to microchip their animals, which is an effective tool to find lost animals.

"We do microchipping clinics leading up until the 4th of July at no cost," said Medina. "People can come in during regular business hours to any of our three shelters, and we will give their pet a microchip or update the registration. Sometimes we have clients that know that their pet has a chip, but they don't know if the information is up to date, so they can come in as well. We will scan the pet and reregister with their actual, point of contact information.

The 4th of July holiday season is the busiest period of time for Animal Services, which sees the most number of lost animals arrive into its shelters.

Learn more about what Santa Barbara County Animals Services is doing to keep pets safe for the 4th of July holiday by watching News Channel 3-12 today at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.