Spooky Pup Fest raises funds for Cache Humane Society

The Cache County Fairgrounds were filled with dogs and their humans dressed in a variety of costumes on Oct. 19. They were attending Spooky Pup Fest, hosted by an Honors 1330 class at Utah State University, which is an introduction into the creative arts through the lens of dogs.  

Spooky Pup Fest is a Halloween-themed festival held as a fundraising event for Cache Humane Society, which is a local no-kill, non-profit animal center. 

Briana Smith is the operations manager at Cache Humane Society. 

Smith said the goal of the event is to help lower adoption costs for pets. 

“We are hoping to put the money raised toward adoption fees for longer-stay animals,” Smith said. “It really helps those animals that have been in our facility for longer. Our average length of stay is 20 days, so with any animals staying longer than that, we find that reducing barriers like adoption fees helps.”  

The event had a myriad of activities and food available. 

Hazel Harris is the undergraduate teaching fellow in the hosting honors course.  

“We have a food truck – the Pauni Island food truck, a couple of vendors who are specializing in dog clothes and other items, a photo booth, pumpkin patch, free refreshments and a peanut butter eating contest,” Harris said. 

Harris said the community can bring their dogs dressed-up to enter the costume contest and walk in the parade to show off their costumes. 

“The staple event of the festival is the parade and costume contest. We invite people from the community to come and dress up their dogs and come walk the parade,” Harris said. “We then have judges from the Cache Humane Society, the Honors Program and professor Laura Gelfand who will judge which costume is the best. We have a couple different awards that we will give out, along with some prizes that we got from some of our sponsors.” 

Laura Gelfand is a professor of art history who teaches the Honors 1330 class. 

Gelfand said the event is part of the community engagement section of the class and teaches the students what it is like to host an event. 

“It is a way to help students understand what it’s like to do an event like this,” Gelfand said. “Specifically, what it takes to put things together but also the value of working for a good cause and reaching out to the community. Not just kind of being insular and at the university all the time.”  

Cache Humane Society is always accepting donations. If anyone wishes to donate, their options are available at their website.