It was a real zoo down at the pet chip clinic

Cloquet's Dunlap Island was Pet Central Saturday, when the Cloquet police department and Carlton County sheriff's office teamed up with Northern Lakes Rescue to offer a free microchipping clinic for area residents. It was so busy that police had to monitor traffic coming in and out of the park, allowing vehicles in one at a time as others departed.

Northern Lakes Rescue founder Shannon Steele said they microchipped 260 animals: 259 dogs and cats, plus one pig.

"That's 260 animals that weren't microchipped before," said Steele, adding that they were busy from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. "We started a little early because people were already there."

Steele says the first thing a person should do when they find a stray dog or cat (or pig) is take the animal (if it's friendly) to a vet's office, shelter or law enforcement for scanning.

She explained that both law enforcement agencies had funding to pay for the clinic for local residents, and nonlocal residents had to pay $20 for the microchip.

"The beauty of the chip, if a dog runs away or gets lost, is if someone gets it scanned they can find the owner right away," she said, adding that she's never heard of any organization charging to scan a lost animal. Steele added that she ordered 400 chips from the Michelson Found Animals Foundation, which also donated an additional 100. She likes the nonprofit because they don't charge for maintaining their database or updates to a microchip owner file.

Alyssa Young was thrilled to find out about the clinic, explaining that their dog Daisy got loose one day and Young spent a frantic 35 minutes on the phone before spotting Daisy down the block, and running in front of traffic to save her.

"I was a wreck," she said. "This is a good thing."

Some of the animals that came to the clinic didn't get a chip, Steele said, because they first scanned each pet and found 10 that were already chipped. In those cases, they provided the owner with the chip number and instructions on how to update the chip.

Inserting the microchip under the animal's skin takes just a few seconds, although soothing the animal afterward or assessing its behavior beforehand can take a lot longer.

"Takes more time to open the package and get stickers on all the paperwork than to actually microchip," Steele said, adding that all the pets and owners seemed to behave. Motley, a 14-week-old Corgi puppy, let out a tiny wail after a moment of shock - then it was all wiggles and kisses again.

Motley's owner, Amanda Houck, said she found out about the clinic from the Cloquet police Facebook page, which she follows.

"I love that our police really get involved with helping the city and its people," she said, adding that she also attended the National Night Out celebration this summer. "And people love their animals, but not everyone has enough money to pay for microchipping. So this is great."

According to acting police chief and commander Derek Randall, in addition to the 260 microchips, six dogs found new homes and 100 spay/neuter vouchers were given out. The funds for the event came from money previously set aside for the now-defunct Friends or Animals.

"It was an important event for our city (and county) due to the lack of our current shelter resources," Randall said. "Being able to quickly identify lost and found animals will help us reunite pets and reduce the time officers spend with the animal calls for service."

Northern Lakes Rescue is not a shelter, Steele explained, it is a rescue and depends on volunteers to foster animals that are rescued. Although their office is in the Pequot Lakes area, the founder said about 70 percent of their volunteers and foster homes are in the Duluth area, including Carlton County.

Northern Lakes Rescue also offered additional low-cost vaccinations (distemper and Bordetella $20 for both or $12 each) as well as nail trims for $10. They also brought along a number of animals ready to be adopted. Find out more at http://www.northernlakesrescue.org or find them on Facebook.