Grant to help Terrebonne shelter find homes for animals

Animal overpopulation has been a common problem in southeast Louisiana post-Katrina and Rita.

To combat the problem locally, the Terrebonne Animal Shelter was awarded $20,000 by the Humane Society of the United States.

In previous years, the Terrebonne Animal Shelter has received other grants. Just last year, the shelter built a quarantine building with a $35,000 grant from the Humane Society and the ASPCA.

This year, the Humane Society and Maddie’s Fund have partnered to give a total of $852,500 to 54 shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“Thanks to HSUS, a new day is dawning for the cats and dogs of Louisiana and Mississippi,” Maddie’s Fund President Rich Avanzino said in a release. “We are proud to be a part of this lifesaving endeavor.”

According to the Humane Society officials, the shelters have made a commitment to develop meaningful animal intake and disposition data and implement a plan for tracking animals between 2005 and 2010.

“Every little bit helps,” said Terrebonne Animal Shelter Director Valerie Robinson. “And the large sum they are donating will help out a lot around here.”

Leaders from the Humane Society and Maddie’s Fund officials toured Houma last week where they met with Robinson for a grant-award event. She explained that the funds could be used for renovations or an expansion.

“They (the Humane Society and Maddie’s Fund) came here to discuss the initial contract,” she said. “We discussed the possible expenditure of the funds and how it depends on the contract guidelines set by the Humane Society.”

The initial grant is fueled by a research-based strategy designed to address the pet overpopulation challenge in the Gulf Coast animal shelters, possibly improving the lives of dogs and cats in the two stages of the strategy.

The Terrebonne shelter has approximately 100 cats and maybe 50 dogs at any given time, according to Robinson. She said the difference in the number of cats and dogs comes about because dogs have a higher adoption rate than cats.

“The Humane Society and Maddie’s Fund researched the number of households with pets in the area as part of the grant process,” she said. “The statistics show that out of 47,172 households in Terrebonne Parish, more than 31,000 have a dog and less than 19,000 have a cat.”

The Humane Society believes that the way to bring down the number of unwanted animals is to increase spay-neuter rates.

National estimates indicate that approximately 70 percent of owned dogs and 84 percent of owned cats are spayed or neutered. But, according to a recent the Humane Society telephone survey, in Louisiana and Mississippi, only 51 percent of owned dogs and 77 percent of owned cats are spayed or neutered.

“It’s good to get your animal spayed/neutered because it cuts down on the increase in animal reproduction and on the euthanization rate,” she said. “There’s not enough room in the shelters now. Why let the animals keep reproducing.”

Robinson practices what she preaches. She adopted four animals from the shelter – two dogs and two cats. All four of her animals are either spayed or neutered.

Terrebonne Animal Shelter mandates that all animals adopted from the local shelter be either spayed or neutered within 30 days of the adoption.