PLAINS – The new Plains dog kennel is officially up and running thanks to the donations and labor provided by many community members. The new kennel will help save the town money and ensure the safety of both human and canine alike.

Previously, the town was paying to keep a cage reserved at a privately owned kennel. This was done just in case the need to hold a dog came about. This plan was costly and resulted in an unforeseen injury as well as medical bills. The new arrangement should be better for everyone involved.

The kennel will be used if any unidentified dogs are found. According to Plains Police Chief Shawn Emmett, town ordinances allow them to hold dogs for 72 hours. If an owner cannot be found in that time there are a couple of options.

“Either we will take the dog to the vet clinic and then the town pays to have the dog euthanized or we can try to get it to either TRACS or the humane society to see if it gets adopted – which is what I prefer to do,” Emmett said.

In order to prevent either of these things from happening, pet owners need to officially register their pets. There is an ordinance that states if you have a dog within city limits you have to register it with the town. The time to register your pet is from Jan. 1-March 1.

“That [the ordinance] is to insure that they have had their rabies shots. Also, if the dog gets loose it helps us to get the dog back to its owner,” Emmett said. “There is also an ordinance that says your dog can’t be running at large. You have to keep it on your property or in your control at all times.”

Accidents can happen to even the most responsible of pet owners so it is important to properly register your dogs for their safety and the safety of others.

The new kennel will be partially financed by the dog tag sales just like in former years. It will be far cheaper for the town than the previous arrangement.

“We used to have to pay $60 a month to keep a kennel open whether we had a dog or not. That’s $720 a year even though it has been five months since we had a dog to pick up,” Emmett said. “We are saving money by running a kennel ourselves.”

The new dog kennel could not have come together without donations from several town members.

Plains Ready Mix donated the concrete and Charlie “Chuck” Clinkenbeard came out and shaped it. Colleen Mesing gave a nice deal on the wire pen and Susan Schroedel made contact with the Missoula Humane Society who donated two igloo dog houses. Little Bitterroot supplied tin for the roof and siding, completing the necessary materials. Greg Dicken, Greg Welty, Earl Crawford, and Shawn Emmett all donated the construction labor in order to erect the finished product.

The kennel is now open for business but there are still plans in the works for later this year.

“We are not totally done yet. We are going to run electricity to it. Then we have a well out there where the kennel is at so we are going to tap into it with a spigot so we can have water there. We might do some painting too,” Emmett said. “This will happen in the spring once it warms up.”