There's no fair this summer at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, but the stalls there are still full of horses, pigs, goats and chickens.
As the LNU Lightning Complex continues to burn through the county, the site is once again serving as a center for large animal evacuations, and some smaller critters are showing up, too.
Marilyn Ingstrom is the fairground’s Livestock Emergency Shelter Manager, and she told KCBS Radio that the group that’s there has, unfortunately, been evacuated here before.
As the fires move, ranchers and equestrians will go round up their animals if they can and volunteers will go grab the others, said Sonoma County Fairgrounds CEO Becky Bartling.
There are new regulations for this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The animals are more spread out, which is possible because the fires in Sonoma aren’t affecting as many homes as they have in past years. When owners come in to care for them, they’ll be more spread out as well.
Owners are also being asked to try to bring all of their own buckets and supplies if they can so that they are not shared.
"With that being said, we have hay here," Bartling said. "We got some other food, and got chicken food coming, because people ran out the house without it."
They have a lot of horses and a herd of a few dozen goats, a tiny pig named Wilbur and mini ponies, with their fluffy herd dog in the middle of the group.