Pets in the Park returns

Families, friends and their pets came out for “Pets in the Park” hosted at the Town Common in downtown Greenville.

The event was coordinated to create support for local animals and give residents of Greenville a place to bring their dogs while enjoying food, refreshments and contests.

Many organizations had tents at the event including Tenth Street Animal Hospital, Pet Food Pantry of North Carolina and the Humane Society of Eastern North Carolina (HSENC).

Pet Food Pantry attended the event to sell merchandise to help support their cause and raise money to help pets all over eastern North Carolina.

“We feed a lot of animals so they can stay with their homeowners instead of going to the shelters,” Suzanne Sawyer, spay and neuter advocate and member of Pet Food Pantry, said.

Samantha Crowe, another member of Pet Food Pantry, said she hopes people continue to spay and neuter their pets so that the number of animals in shelters decreases.

According to Crowe, the increased amount of animals in shelters often is because people try to breed their pets and make profit off of litter puppies, but they don’t end up making money and the puppies are placed in shelter care.

Crowe said Pitt County luckily has shelters that can accommodate these kinds of population problems, but other smaller surrounding counties don’t have shelters or they have very low funding for shelters. She said residents should be aware of this problem and realize a lot of pets that go into shelters sometimes don’t come out.

Residents can help with the overflow of unwanted animals by adopting from shelters, spaying and neutering their pets and donating to local organizations.

According to Shelby Jolly, assistant shelter director for the HSENC, the Humane Society partners with Curtis Media Group and comes out every year to help get as many of their dogs into forever homes as possible.

“We’ve had six adoptions so far,” Jolly said. “We’re hoping to go home with an empty car.”

Tenth Street Animal Hospital, Firetower Animal Clinic and Animal Hospital of Pitt County comes out to help the community and raise awareness for adopting pets in the Greenville area, according to Ryan Nosay, an employee with Tenth Street Animal Hospital.

Nosay said she hopes students utilize their student discounts, and that their caring vets are available to treat all kinds of animals, including dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits and more.

Multiple apartment complexes set up tents at the event as well, including 33 East, The District at Tar River and University Park.

“We want everyone to know we are pet-friendly and we want everyone to know it’s going to be a good area to set up shop for,” Kaila Kearney, employee with 33 East, said.

33 East and many other vendors at the event handed out dog-themed trinkets and souvenirs for visitors who approached their tents.

Attendees could also take part in various contests, including a barking contest to see who’s dog could bark the most for a prize.

Residents walking their dogs around cooled down with Kona Ice, while their furry companions took a dip in the water at the cool down station.