NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The Humane Society of Louisiana held a press conference to discuss funding for animal shelters around the state.

Thursday (Mar. 9th) HSLA presented lawmakers with a report published by the State Legislative Auditor’s Office to urge lawmakers to allocate funds to build new animal shelters and renovate existing ones.

HSLA has been been in discussions with rural leaders to revitalize animal shelters but has been told countlessly that there is not enough funding.

“Animal control is an essential service, much like police and fire protection. So, imagine half of our state operating without even basic services. This means that there is no agency to call if an animal is in distress, lost, found, or injured. We simply have to do better,” says HSLA Director Jeff Dorson.

HLSA has been actively working on improving the state’s animal shelters for over 35 years.

According to their research, more than 30 of the state’s 64 parishes lack parish-wide facilities especially rural parishes such as Avoyelles, Bienville, Evangeline, Catahoula, E. Feliciana, Franklin, Livingston, St. Helena, St. James, Caldwell, Red River, and Union.

Without animal shelters, millions of residents go without basic animal control services which contributes to stray animals breeding indiscriminately.

HSLA argues that legislatures should model sister cities like New York where lawmakers have started allocating millions of dollars each year through its Companion Animal Capital Projects Fund to public and private shelters for the past several years.

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