A different type of pet
Doran Roullier, 8, gets to hand an alligator during Saturday's second annual Pet Fair at the South Shore Vet Clinic in Polson.
Carlos Rodriguez shows off a golden eagle pellet to Elaine Williamson and Bill and Lois Frauen during last Saturday's second annual Pet Fair at the South Shore Vet Clinic in Polson.
Youngster Doran, 8, Ayden, 22 months and Amber, 4, get to touch a real, live alligator during the South Shore Veterinary Clinic's second annual Pet Fair last Saturday.
POLSON - Alligators, eagles and hawks. Oh my.
At the South Shore Veterinary Pet Fair last Saturday, animals, native to Polson and from elsewhere, hung out for the public to ask questions about and touch.
"It was really fun, a good time," Carlos Rodriquez, an employee at South Shore, said.
He said the weather wasn't ideal and many vendors canceled due to the rain. This year there wasn't a dog training course, among other things.
"There's that momentary ‘oh no, I'll never do this again' reaction [after the vendors canceled]," he said. "The show must go on. However, the presenters rose to the occasion."
People came from as far away as Kalispell and from as close as the Polson Senior Center to satisfy their curious nature.
"For a lot of the visitors, it was good for them to see those different animals," Rodriquez said. "Here in Polson, it's a novelty."
The whole point of the Pet Fair was to expose people to new things that they wouldn't normally come into contact with for the greater cause of education.
"I like to see people exposed to animals one-on-one," he said. "It helps when a kid sees the look on the animals' faces. He might not pull the trigger on a .22 when his friends are telling him to shoot an eagle or hawk."
Rodriquez had his own red-tailed hawk and golden eagle there for people to be exposed to. Rodriguez examined a pellet the eagle spit up, showing attendees what the bird had eaten the previous days as part of his presentation. The magnificent, large bird had hit a power line, Rodriguez said, and will never fly again.
"The choices were three: to euthanize her, tame her or give it to a zoo," he said.
His two-year-old golden eagle, which he just learned can live to 50 or 60 years old, is trained to be an educational bird and was calm when approached by some of the fair-goers.
"If she is going to be an educational bird, she is going to have to get used to all of it," he said. "It's an everyday thing for me to hold an eagle, but that isn't the case for others."
His red-tailed hawk, on the other hand, has been healing up at his home in Polson, so this fair was a coming-out party of sorts.
"It was her first time to be presented to a group of people," he said.
When Rodriquez is going to present his birds, he takes into account how the birds are acting the day of a presentation.
"There's days when one of my birds just isn't in the mood," he said. "Then it's not fun for the bird, the people or myself."
Visitors were also able to check out a salt-water aquarium with many types of fish and coral.
In the future, Rodriquez would like to see the fair expand to include more games and activities for children.
"Kids have only a certain length of an attention span," he said. "I would like it to be more of a fair with a lot of different things."
The day after, Rodriquez was thinking of how he was going to top an alligator for next year's fair.
"An elephant," he said. "We might need to start looking for one."