Health

Health department issues tickets to irresponsible pet owners

Published

5 years ago

September 4, 2019

The La Crosse County Health Department announced it will immediately start issuing citations against pet owners who do not follow appropriate protocol for rabies prevention.

Jennifer Rombalski, director of the health department, said staff members receive about 450 reports of animal bites in a year. Of those reports, only 75 percent comply with follow-up requirements.

“We think 25 percent of noncompliance rates are too high, and we need to be able to encourage and entice animal owners to be responsible.”

Those requirements ensure the animal is vaccinated for rabies and is quarantined for 10 days after a bite. During that time, the animal must have three veterinarian visits to check for signs of rabies. If the animal is vaccinated, it can be quarantined at home. If not, it can be a costly 10-day visit at a vet clinic.

Because of the lack of compliance, the department decided to assert its authority as part of the health code.

“We don’t want to do that, of course,” Rombalski said. “We would rather educate, work with people, and it is really all about preventing humans from getting rabies because that is 100 percent fatal.”

The initial ticket costs $100, but after court costs, the amount more than doubles to $263.50, according to Rombalski.

Kaitlyn Riley

Kaitlyn Riley’s passion for communications started on her family’s dairy farm in Gays Mills, Wis. Wanting to share agriculture’s story, she studied strategic communications and broadcast journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, she held officer positions with the Association of Women in Agriculture and Badger Dairy Club while volunteering as a news reporter for the college radio station. She also founded the university’s first agricultural radio talk show, AgChat. In her professional career, Kaitlyn has worked in radio, print and television news doing everything from covering local events to interviewing presidential candidates, and putting back on her barn boots to chat with farmers in the field. Today, Kaitlyn can be seen covering local stories that matter to you in the La Crosse area.