An animal expo at the Tempe Town Lake Beach Park was held this weekend to find homes for stray animals and to educate local pet owners about animal safety.
Ten dogs, one cat and three parakeets were adopted from the Arizona Humane Society at Saturday's event. Attendees had their choice of adopting dogs, cats, hamsters or parakeets.
Though these 14 animals were adopted, the Arizona Humane Society has many more that need homes, according to adoption coordinator Rebecca Stewart.
The event was sponsored by Animal Planet, Cox Communications and the American Humane Association.
Tempe is the ninth city that the expo has visited this year.
"The event is to display Animals Planet motto: 'Life is better with animals,'" said Laleh Rafiee, marketing manager with Discovery Networks.
Ben Drotar, a director for the American Humane Association, said he hopes the event will teach people to not abandon their pets in the case of an emergency.
"We hope people leave here understanding that if there is a disaster don't leave your family behind," Drotar said. "Evacuate with your animals."
Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, veterinarian from Animal Planet's show "Emergency Vets," who was at the expo, offered some additional pet safety tips.
"I think people should be more pro-active and use a little bit of foresight so they can save themselves a lot of heartache," Fitzgerald said. "They should keep their yard fenced and have a microchip or a tag incase the animal gets lost."
Liz Rodriquez was in attendance with her 4-year-old grandson, J.J. Castellanos.
"I thought it was great," Rodriquez said. "I learned a lot about animal safety."
Reach the reporter at susan.padilla@asu.edu.
