Dear Friends,
February 21, 2006
Though it’s been
5 ½ months since Katrina devastated
New Orleans, our lives are still
dominated by a constant sense of
urgency. Each day staff struggles
with reestablishing normal
operations as we face the challenges
of converting a huge warehouse into
a functioning animal shelter. The
trials of the day also bring forth
great reward. Below is an update on
where we are in major program areas
of the LA/SPCA.
Adoption
Off-site adoption days came back to
life in January thanks to the hard
work of volunteer leaders Diane Angelico and Callie Black and their
incredible team. Forty animals were
adopted at our offsite partner
locations of Jefferson Feed, Pet and
Garden Center and Clearview Shopping
Center. We also joined forces with
Best Friends at an adoption event at
their temporary site at Celebration
Station in Metairie where new
families were found for another 7
great LA/SPCA dogs.
The Cat Practice, the first remote
adoption site for LA/SPCA cats and
kittens, is back in the adoption
business. Over the years, they have
found homes for 700 kittens and
cats. We are very proud of our
association with the Cat Practice
and send them a big welcome back
MEOW! Our second remote adoption
center, The Purr Pad at Jefferson
Feed, plans to reopen very soon.
With great anticipation, we opened
for
onsite adoptions on Valentine’s
Day, February 14, 2006 with a
process we were considering at
Japonica Street. The Meet Your
Match™ Canine-ality Adoption Program,
created by ASPCA,
helps form lasting bonds by matching
the expectations of a potential pet
guardian to a shelter dog based on
his or her temperament and behavior.
The goal is to lay a strong
foundation for the human-canine bond
to develop, increasing the potential
for a successful, permanent
placement. We created a similar
process for cats.
We’re now open for adoption on
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Our adoption days will
expand over the next few weeks.
Volunteer
Our volunteer program is back in
full-swing. Coordinator Ginger
Morvant and Programs & Strategy
Director Kate Pullen have offered
several training sessions to
returning and new volunteers.
Volunteers can choose to work
directly with the animals or
contribute their services in other
ways. Some people want to walk dogs
or play with cats while others
prefer to do shelter repairs,
clerical work or events. We welcome
our community’s talents and time in
all shapes and sizes. Interested
people can complete an
application
online or visit us at 1700 Mardi
Gras Blvd.
We are now taking applications for
our
Care Cadet Camp 2006, an
educational program for adolescents
which is designed to develop
responsible pet owners and humane
educators. Applicants must have
completed fifth grade and will enter
the sixth or seventh grade in the
fall of 2006. Acceptance into this
program is based on an application
and interview process. For more
information, please call 368-5191
ext 154.
Feral Cats
and Trap-Neuter-Return
The LA/SPCA is a proponent of TNR
(Trap-Neuter-Return), the
alternative to the “trap and remove”
method of dealing with the cat
overpopulation problem. We
reintroduced our TNR program in
November. Feral cats are vaccinated
for rabies, spayed/neutered, and
their ears are tipped for easy
identification. Staff and volunteers
from the LA/SPCA and the Humane
Society of Louisiana are observing
the colonies to ensure that the cats
remain safe and healthy.
Facility/Shelter
Our warehouse-turned-animal shelter
evolves daily. Animal shelters are
complex facilities to design due to
disease transmission concerns,
safety, and guest needs.
Retrofitting a warehouse into a
workable facility for at least two
years is challenging to say the
least.
Our roof is finally complete and the
indoor rain showers have ended.
Because we currently don’t have hot
water or drainage, cleaning is
labor-intensive. We use puppy pads,
which are expensive, to line the
floor. The dogs enjoy ripping them
to shreds after they’ve finished
their peanut-butter filled Kongs.
We are awaiting our self-draining,
permanent kennels but don’t expect
them for another 8-12 weeks. To
prepare for their arrival, we will
soon dig trenches into the
warehouse’s concrete floor for
needed drainage.
In hopes of reuniting displaced
owners and pets, we are still
placing
photos of incoming animals
on the web although we will
discontinue that practice at some
point in the future. Typically, it’s
not wise to post strays on a website
as people who are not their owners
attempt to claim an animal they find
attractive. A photo allows the wrong
person to describe the pet in detail
to the shelter staff thereby adding
credibility to the person’s claim.
We have struggled to take quality
photos in our once-dark facility
even after adding elements to
improve the lighting in the area
where the animals are photographed.
Feral cats and dogs are particularly
difficult as we want to minimize our
handling of the animals.
We are adding small rooms for cats,
building a medical area for our
shelter veterinarian, and other
important rooms for daily
operations.
Rescue and
Cruelty Investigation
We continue to rescue animals’
everyday from our city’s streets or
neglected homes. Although we are
trapping on our own, we asked the
Humane Society of the United States
to join us in a major
campaign to
sweep the city of remaining animals. HSUS left us with more traps than
we’ve ever had the privilege of
owning. We are also loaning traps to
residents and training them on their
use. Interested residents may visit
us at the shelter to obtain a trap
in exchange for a deposit that will
be held until the trap is returned.
As typical for this time of year, we
are seeing a puppy explosion.
Incoming females are often pregnant
or roaming with litters.
As residents return to the city so
do the related animal problems.
We’ve seen a marked increase in lost
dogs in the heaviest populated
areas. To help lost pets and owners
reconnect, we are providing the
public with
free collars and ID’s
that include a special serial number
so that pets and owners can be
easily and quickly reunited. To
obtain your free collar and tags,
please stop by the shelter. We’d
like to thank 1-800-Help-4-Pets for
donating life-long registry to New
Orleans residents. For more
information on their company, please
visit them at www.help4pets.com.
We are also seeing an increase in
cruelty and neglect cases as people
return to the city. Residents are
urged to call us at 368-5191, ext
100 to report any concerns they have
about neglected pets. We have also
place a form online for
requesting cruelty investigations.
Our most seasoned cruelty
investigator, Kathryn Destreza, has
established our
new cruelty division
in Baton Rouge. The next couple of
months are dedicated to meeting with
officials statewide to determine the
needs and how we might best deploy
our 118 years of experience in
fighting cruelty and bringing those
to justice who commit crimes against
animals.
Spay/Neuter
Since we lost our veterinary clinic,
we are working with local
veterinarians to establish a
subsidized spay/neuter program for
the public. We are very close to
finalizing the details. Through
December 2006, residents’ pets can
be spayed or neutered for just $10.
The ASPCA and ED&F MAN made the
low-cost spay/neuter program
possible. A big WOOF to each
organization! Check our website soon
for more details on how to
participate.
Legislation
We are working with Senator Clo
Fontenot on a pet evacuation bill
that will be proposed in the
upcoming legislative session.
Before the storm, we presented the
city with draft language for a
spay/neuter ordinance. We are
beginning discussions again and hope
to have the ordinance heard before
the City Council in the next few
months.
We are also working on several local
initiatives such as rabies licensing
and minimum kennel sizes.
Promoting the
human/animal bond
Intervention
To help build the confidence of
traumatized dogs who have been
roaming the street since the storm,
we created a special place we call
the “rehabilitation tent.” It’s
there that we provide special dogs
with a quiet environment and an
individual intervention plan. Our
behaviorist, Carolyn Kerner,
oversees the day-to-day progress and
makes changes to the plans.
Dog
Obedience Training
Behavior problems are often sited as
a reason for surrendering a beloved
pet to a shelter. By helping owners
understand and manage their
relationship with their pet, we hope
to encourage a bond that never
breaks. We were pleased to offer our
first post-Katrina classes in
January and are already filling the
roster for March. Several classes
are sold-out. The schedule can be
seen on our in
Education section.
Dog Day
Afternoon
Our annual dog-walk will be held on
March 26, 2006 in Audubon Park. We
believe the theme
Pawsitively New Orleans; Come, Stay,
Heal is perfect for allowing our
inner dogs to heal while enjoying
our relationship with our furred
companions.
Laura Maloney
Louisiana SPCA
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