Sunday was World Rabies Day. The international awareness campaign is designed to provide education on rabies prevention and treatment. WGCU’s John Davis has more.

Lee County Animal Services is providing identifying micro-chips for pets at a reduced rate through the end of July. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

It’s National Dog Bite Prevention Week. Roughly 800-thousand Americans seek medical help because of dog bites every year…nearly half of which require emergency attention. WGCU’s Mike Kiniry reports.

Volunteers who want to learn how to care for animals during a natural disaster will be attending a workshop this weekend in Sarasota hosted by the Humane Society. WGCU’s John Davis reports.

More than 150 breeds of dogs were represented this weekend at the Greater Ft. Myers Dog Club's Annual Spring Show. They were accompanied by about 1200 owners and exhibitors. WGCU’s Valerie Alker was part of a crowd of about five hundred admirers, and has this report.

Lee County Animal Services is pushing to educate pet owners about a growing problem in Southwest Florida…animal hoarding. April is prevention of animal cruelty month.

There are many types of animal cruelty but one that is growing across the nation, including Southwest Florida, is animal hoarding. Animal Services says there are people who have a large number of animals in their home, and even though that does not constitute animal cruelty, sometimes it can be a health risk to the humans as well as the animals. Spokeswoman Ria Brown says the challenge with helping animal hoarders is getting them to understand the consequences of their actions.

”When it gets to the point when the animals are suffering, and the people don’t realize it, and a lot of the times the animal hoarders themselves are suffering just as well but they may fail to see that, and they maybe causing these problems for other family members, especially children.

Brown says some of the characteristics of animal hoarders included; obsessive compulsive, ability to gain sympathy, denial of their behavior. For more information on animal hoarding visit www.leelostpets.com.

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It was recognized for innovation, progressive and proactive work in the industry, a reduction in euthanasia and a major increase in adoptions.

Agency staff also won three other best in state awards - Caretaker of the Year, Office Worker of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year. Lee County Commissioner John Albion publicly congratulated the agency.

"Those awards represent two-third of all awards presented statewide and four out of five categories where LCAS was nominated. So that as well as what's happening internationally with this group is amazing. That agency has totally turned around and we can only hope that we can take care of the problem of having to kill animals, hopefully we can do more spaying and neutering."

In the past three years, Lee County Animal Services has won eight best in state awards including at least one winner in every category available for awards.Lee County Animal Services is the only agency in the state to have won every category in the in the past three years.