Furry friends: Keeping them safe during the Fourth

First, Uecker said, it’s important to keep pets in an environment where they will feel safe.

“They want to make sure that their dogs feel safe and comfortable and are in a safe environment,” Uecker said. “Not in a backyard where they can easily escape or jump fences or get themselves hurt. But you also don’t want to confine them in an area that they feel threatened and may destroy the walls or doors and stuff.”

Staying with a pet is also important to make them feel safe.

“My first suggestion would be to stay with your animal,” Uecker said. “The pet owner is the number one source of comfort for an animal, so knowing that their person is there with them is going to help make them feel safe and comfortable.”

But even if you don’t have a pet, you could end up seeing a stray dog or cat scared out into the open cross your yard.

“It certainly could because it changes the environment that they’re used to,” Uecker said. “So it could stir them from their normal hiding place or what they consider their home.”

The best thing to do if spotting a stray stirred from its hiding place is to call Animal Control rather than attempt to follow or restrain it, Uecker said.

“We have an Animal Control officer through the Pierre Police Department and they will help find that animal, safely get them to the pound,” Uecker said.

“The owner of the dog will contact our dispatch center, and our dispatch center will in turn notify an officer that the dog’s missing,” Pierre Police Department Capt. Bryan Walz said of the Animal Control process. “The officer will actively search for the dog during that time period. If they’re unable to (locate) the dog, then of course that remains an active case. If it’s actually our Animal Control officer working, the Animal Control officer will go out and he’ll actively look for the dog. If and when we recover the dog, then we notify the owner and make arrangements for them to pick up the dog. Either we can drop it off at the residence, or they can come to the location that the dog was recovered and retrieve the animal.”