VENTURA : Animal Magnetism

About 100 Ventura County pet owners and other animal lovers spent Sunday afternoon at a fair where they could both be practical and have fun.

Called the Animal and Friends Pet Fair, the event in Ventura’s Plaza Park featured exhibits and demonstrations by nonprofit groups and the county’s Animal Regulation Department about how to care for pets.

Residents, many with their dogs in tow, heard about such topics as the importance of spaying and neutering pets and animal nutrition, said Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), whose office helped sponsor the fair.

Nonprofit groups at the fair included the Ventura Humane Society, the Pet Assistance Foundation and the Humane Animal Rescue Team.

The fair was “a chance to bring some of the providers together with their furry clients,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell addressed the crowd about Gov. Pete Wilson’s recent veto of two animal rights bills sponsored by the assemblyman. The bills were about animal testing for certain products and the neutering and spaying of pets adopted from shelters.

But Sunday’s fair wasn’t only about serious matters.

The children and adults who attended got to see a baboon, a possum, a macaw and other exotic animals brought by the Exotic Animal Training Program at Moorpark