Summer pet care

Resident and visiting pet owners: look out for your pets!

High volume summer traffic on Block Island brings increased risks for pets, but accidents can be avoided by using extra care.

Please make sure your pets do not roam freely (there is a leash law), and that they wear a safely secured collar with proper identification tags that include their name and a telephone number.

Sudden stops can throw a dog violently from a truck bed, with tragic results. Let your canine friends ride shotgun for the summer or secure them safely in the back of the truck.

Remember when the temperature and humidity rise to high degrees, an animal will try to find shade for shelter from the hot sun. Be sure to provide plenty of drinking water and a cool, safe place for your pet to rest. Do not leave any pet unattended

in a car; internal temperatures become extremely attended

high and can kill in only a few minutes.

Call the Block Island Volunteers for Animals (BIVFA) at 466-5303 to report a lost, found or injured pet. There

is no emergency animal medical center on the island.

BIVFA can help guide you to emergency pet care facilities

off-island.

This summer "doggie-doo" bags will be available from dispensers at Old Harbor, the Boat Basin

and other handy locations. Help yourself to these

bags, says BIVFA, and

please dispose of them

properly in trash receptacles.

Have a safe and happy summer with your pets, says BIVFA.

source: www.blockislandtimes.com