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Shelter receives funds
Animal control facility expands services, building
Originally published October 19,
2007
A grant from Maddie's Fund will allow the St. Landry Parish Animal Control Facility to almost double its ability to care for homeless dogs and cats.
"This will allow us to hold our animals longer and increase our ability to find them a home," said Animal Control Supervisor Patricia Guillory.
The facility, located near the airport, currently has 41 kennels - 23 for dogs and 18 for cats. The facility currently has 41 dogs and 21 cats, so the kennels are doing double duty.Guillory said the grant, made available through the Humane Society of the United States, should allow her to add 30 more kennels. "That would be such a wonderful asset for us," Guillory said.
"We want to give these animals every chance available to them and any grant funding to help the parish government do this is a much needed blessing," said Parish President Don Menard.
The facility, which takes in stray and abandoned animals from throughout the parish as well as most of the parish's 12 municipalities, is currently handling about 3,000 animals a year.
"The large majority are strays," Guillory said.
Since being hired last year, Guillory has made a strong effort to get as many of these animals as possible into new homes.
"Adoptions are just wonderful for us right now," said Guillory, who is averaging 85 adoptions a month. "We did 130 in August, 95 in September. It is increasing; that's wonderful for us."
While by law the shelter is only required to hold an animal for five days, Guillory said she often extends that limit.
"We have some who have been here three months," Guillory said. "When you see that very special dog, the one you know you will be able to find a home for, we try to keep them longer."
She said adopting an animal is easy. A person only needs to come by the shelter, pick out their new companion and fill out the adoption forms. They can take their new pet home with them that same day.
"There are no fees for the adoptions. The only requirement is that the animal goes to a loving and caring home," Guillory said.
As part of the adoption process, the new owner is required to have the animal sprayed or neutered and get the required rabies shots.
As part of the grant process, the shelter has agreed to participate in the "After Katrina: Improving the Lives of Gulf Coast Dogs and Cats" program that requires the collection of statistics on shelter counts, adoptions and intake number of animals. It will also need to keep records on the condition of the animals when they arrive, ranking them as either healthy, treatable or unhealthy.
Menard said that should not be a problem.
"The collection of these statistics will only enhance the parish's accountability practices and give us a clearer picture of the condition and number of animals being taken in by animal control officers," Menard said.
For more information about the shelter or adoption, call 948-6184.