BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — August is National Dog Month, a time to recognize all the ways our four-legged friends help make our lives better.
“We will be doing a clearing the shelters event where we’re going to be doing a big push for fundraising and trying to get some exposure for our animals,” said Companion Animal Alliance Communication Director Emily Lemoine.
Lemoine, who had little Buster the kitten in her hand, said this time of the year is when they make a huge push with an annual event to find the purr-fect homes for as many animals as paw-sible.
“A group of all sorts of shelters and rescues from our area. We’re going to set up in the dog park, We’re going to have food trucks, bounce houses, we’ll have pet resources, people from pet care, people from PetSmart, maybe trainers, groomers, tons of resources. And our shelter will also be waiving adoption fees on all available,” she explained.
She said their shelter is over capacity, like many across the state.
“So we think it might possibly inflation, a combination of the economy, things like that, and also pets that were adopted during COVID when people were working from home, and now these people who thought they could work from home longer, are now being forced into the work offices,” said Lemoine.
Although cats have a little more space to roam around. Companion Animal Alliance is having a rougher time getting the pups out the door.
“We need space. So we are waiving the cost of all of these adoption fees just to try to save as many lives as possible. Right now we have 426 dogs in our care, both here and in foster homes. And we have 171 dog kennels. So there are a lot of displaced animals. We have pop-up kennels in hallways,” she said.
She said it’s a revolving door of animals, more coming in than going out, and they are looking for some relief.
“We need people to take these pets into their home. For the people that do do that, we’re super appreciative,” Lemoine expressed.
Later this month BRProud is teaming up with Companion Animal Alliance to “Clear the Shelters.” We invite you to join us on Saturday, Aug. 27 at the Lucky Miremont Dog Park to give these shelter pets a fur-ever home.
For more about Clear the Shelters, click here.
