March 21, 2025 • 51 mins
Ever wondered what it really takes to run an animal shelter? Join us this week as we sit down with Kelsey Knight, the dedicated director of the Washington Parish Animal Shelter. We'll delve into the daily challenges and heartwarming triumphs of caring for our furry friends. Kelsey shares her passion for animal welfare and offers insights into how you can make a difference in your own community. Get ready for a dose of compassion and a peek behind the kennel doors!
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Episode Transcript
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Dixie (00:02):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Today, let's welcome Kelsey Knight.
She is the director of theWashington Parish Animal Shelter.
hi Kelsey.
How are you?
I am good.
I am excited to talk with you today aboutthe Washington Parish Animal Shelter.
(00:24):
That's something that a lotof people don't know what goes
in into working at a shelter.
A lot of people know the rescueside, but they don't know
anything about the shelter side.
To start, can you describe yourjourney to becoming the director of
the Washington Parish Animal Shelter?
Kelsey (00:39):
As a young kid, I always wanted to work with animals.
I think some of us are justborn with that calling.
And I can definitely say that.
So when I got out of highschool, I started grooming dogs.
So I was a dog stylist, and I realizedas I was working that I had this
knack for working with dogs thatwere super fearful of being groomed.
(01:03):
So I let that become my specialty.
And I had, clients that justfollowed me wherever I went because
no one else could do their dogs.
And then I started doing cats and bathingand trying to cut a cat while it's fully
awake and aware of what's going on.
Not many people want to do that,but I was like, I can do it.
I have the patience.
(01:24):
So I.
Started doing cats and I gotreally burnt out very quickly.
I did grooming for six years,and by the end of those six
years I was just exhausted.
I didn't have the energy to go into work.
I was pushing clientsback and pushing them back
because by that point I hadnothing but, fearful dogs and cats.
(01:47):
And so every day it was just a strugglewith every single client I had.
And I started getting taggedin a Facebook post, and I'm not
really on Facebook a lot, so I waslike, let me see what's going on.
And they had a position for a sheltermanager and I had volunteered at shelters.
I had groomed dogs at shelters and rescue.
(02:09):
So I was like, I think I wanna do this.
I immediately had it in my head ofI know where I want my parish to go.
I know what I want to do with this.
So I went in and I interviewed and Ibawled like a baby in the interview.
I just cried my eyes out and Iwas like, this is my dream job.
. I've always wanted to work with animals.
(02:29):
I've always wanted to save livesand give everything I have to them.
And this is the bestopportunity in the world.
There's no greater job thanbeing like a shelter manager.
And I somehow got the job.
So in 2019, I walkedinto a empty building.
(02:53):
It had nothing in it except like a couch.
It didn't even have desksor chairs or anything.
And within I think two weeks wehad our first three dogs at the
shelter, which were just drops off.
Someone had seen or found outthat there was gonna be a shelter
there, so they came and droppedoff some dogs and I was like, okay.
Their names were Paul Lolaand Trunk, and they really.
(03:16):
Taught me a lot on how towork with dogs in the shelter.
And, you had, one of themhad been bitten by a snake.
So I immediately had to figureout how do I talk to vets?
How do I, deal withthis and live with this?
And now it's been almostsix years at the shelter.
Dixie (03:34):
Wow.
That's amazing.
That's a interesting story goingfrom the grooming to doing that.
That's wonderful.
Phil (03:40):
So, so the shelter started in 2019.
That was the in inception ofthe Washington Parish shelter.
Kelsey (03:46):
Yeah, the doors opened August 8th, 2019.
Phil (03:50):
Oh, fantastic.
Okay.
So you were there from the beginning then.
Okay, cool.
Kelsey (03:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was the first
employee and I'm still there.
Dixie (03:57):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Kelsey (04:02):
It really, I'll say it depends on the day of the week.
It depends on.
A whole lot of stuff.
We are absolutely believers that,if it's a full moon, it's gonna be
crazy because every time there'sa full moon, everything's crazy.
But mostly a normal day, let'ssay the, we're not doing intakes.
We don't have like crazyadoptions or anything.
(04:23):
It's a lot of paperwork, , alot of on the phone.
I have spent an entire eight hourshift on the phone and then I go
home and I'm like, I can't talk.
Don't ask me how my day was.
I'm so tired of talking.
Lots of data collection.
That's a big part of myjob is the smallest thing.
I'm like, okay, how can I use this factto learn more about my parish and learn
(04:49):
more about the animals and learn moreabout my adoption pool so that I can do
better and make my dogs better make us.
A bigger asset to the parish
and then we have, sometimeswe have crazy days.
Dixie (05:05):
Right.
Yeah, I can imagine.
What are the biggest challengesthat face your shelter right now?
Kelsey (05:12):
Having a parish that is overwhelmed with our animal population,
both with canines and felines.
We have so many kittens andpuppies and dogs and cats that we
don't have empty homes right now.
A lot of even my adopterscome in and they're like, oh
(05:33):
yeah I have two dogs at home.
How does this dog act with other dogs?
Or I have two cats, so howdoes this dog react to cats?
It's very rare to get.
A new adopter that does notalready have pets in the home.
So we see a lot of times, especially whenwe're out in the field doing like adoption
events at Tractor Supply or other placesthat people walk by and they're like,
(05:58):
I would adopt, but I have three dogs Iwould adopt, but I have five animals I
would adopt, but I am already at capacityfor what I can care for in my home.
And so that's our biggeststruggle right now.
If we had more adoptions, we couldget more dogs in that needed help and
really move our animals much quicker.
(06:19):
So then you fall back onwhat about transports?
During Covid we hadtransports out the wazoo.
Everything was getting shipped everywhere.
Even dogs with like behaviorproblems or health issues.
We were able to get those dogs outto New York, New Jersey, Washington.
And what happened was we overwhelmed them.
(06:40):
We sent so many animals up north that nowthey're overburdened with our population.
I'm still getting calls frompeople being like, yeah, I adopted
this dog in, 21 from you guys.
I'm like, oh, you justcalled me from Minnesota.
What is my dog doing in Minnesota?
So we really don't have, those optionsto send out massive amounts of animals.
(07:05):
And so everything has fallen back intowhat we can get out in the parish.
So that's number one.
Bottom line, if we had more openhomes, empty homes, we could get
more adoptions, which in turnallows us to take in more animals.
Dixie (07:20):
And what types of animals do you typically see coming into the shelter?
. Kelsey (07:26):
So we are not animal control at the shelter.
So we don't have any legal authority.
We can't go out and seize animals.
We can't go out and, writecitations or do anything like that.
So mostly what we see arestray and owner surrender.
So an owner surrender, obviously,they chose to care for that animal.
(07:46):
Have that animal, we put them on ourintake list, we get that animal in on
the opposite side, you have your straysurrender where maybe a stray dog has
come into the yard or maybe like it's abusiness or something, and they're like,
there's no owner, no one's claiming it.
It needs to come into the shelter..
Now we do take in almost all ofthe emergency cases that come.
(08:08):
Through like our phonelog or our messages.
So we get a lot of dogs that areseverely injured hit by a car, different
stuff like that just because we'resuper medically based at the shelter.
So we're actually able to carefor those animals and treat them.
Phil (08:26):
Okay.
And I know y'all are in a rural area.
Do you ever take anything otherthan cats or dogs dogs, like any
kind of livestock or anything?
Kelsey (08:35):
So we don't have the capacity for livestock.
We've helped assist in some situationswith horses and goats and stuff,
but we don't have the space or thefencing to actually house animals.
We have gotten some birds of prey that wesent out, so we've gotten a falcon before.
Owls, you get your little babysquirrel calls and raccoons and
(08:57):
possums and stuff like that, butwe cannot keep them at the shelter.
So even if we're holding themshort term, we have to send them
out to a sanctuary or a rescue.
Dixie (09:08):
And how has the shelter adapted to changes in animal
welfare practices over the years?
Kelsey (09:15):
I will say in 2019, I didn't know anything.
I was so green, like I hadno idea about anything.
But one thing about me personally is.
All I do is research.
All I do is educate myself.
So anytime someone was like, oh, we'regonna have a course about this, or
(09:37):
we're gonna have a class about this,or we're gonna be talking about this,
I'm like let me in on that Zoom call.
Let me drive over hereand see what's going on.
And so then once you start meetingthe other directors of the shelters
and you start meeting, you know thesegenius minds, you're able to, call
them up and say, Hey, I'm confused aboutthis, or I just got this situation in.
(10:02):
And then you meet vets who are like, yeah,gimme a call if you're ever, confused
about something or if you need help.
And then you step up and now allof a sudden you're talking to
the directors of, shelter med atLSU, . Learning, everything about
my job is learning data collection.
What can I do better?
Where can I do better?
So when we started, we were basic medicalprotocol, basic training, basic welfare.
(10:29):
We had no idea.
And now when a dog comes into our shelterwithin 24 hours, that dog has almost been
fully medically treated for everything.
It's been wormed, vaccinated,heartworm tested, it's given
like flea and tick prevention.
We've looked that dog over completely.
Our vets are already aware that Hey, whenyou come in, this dog has my belly button
(10:52):
hernia or this dog is a criptorchid.
Or all of those things.
And then we reach out to thetrainers that we work with and we're
like, Hey, this dog is super shy.
Would you be willing to comeup and work with this dog
for, one or two times a week?
We have a trainer that comes.
Twice a week to the shelter,to dog test our dogs.
(11:15):
Then we have an incredible man who liketwice a week comes and walks every dog
in our facility, just takes them out ona walk and walks them to get out energy.
Like we're, we put our all intothese animals at the shelter.
Dixie (11:33):
Do you ever collaborate with animal welfare organizations
or other community groups?
Kelsey (11:40):
Oh, absolutely.
So Washington Humane Society hasbeen one of our biggest partners
from the inception of the shelter.
We rely on them so much.
They are like the friends ofWashington Parish Animal Shelter.
They helped us get our startwith spay neuter clinic.
They were the ones who found the fundingto get us the anesthesia machines and the
(12:03):
tables and the stuff that we have now.
If there's ever a situation wherewe're , we need help, getting this.
Oxygen thing or whatever, likethey're the ones that we call when
we need help with that side of it.
But they support us in multiple ways, likeespecially sharing our Facebook posts.
Anytime we make a Facebook post, they're,it's an immediate oh, I know they're
(12:26):
gonna share it, it's gonna get totheir audience, which is not the same
audience that we have at our shelter.
We've worked with bigger groupslike Bissell best friends.
Greater good.
We've, worked with them.
We're part of Bissell'sFix the Future Program.
So they actually pay our vetsto come in and spay and neuter
(12:49):
animals for our public, pay themin full to do all of that work.
But then Washington Humane Society,they get grants for all of the cats.
So right now, in March we're doingover, I think actually we might be at
a hundred Cats this month, and theyhave paid for every single one of
(13:12):
those cats to be spayed or neutered.
Dixie (13:14):
That's great.
So we don't have any.
Kelsey (13:16):
Yeah, we don't have anybody paying for cats this month.
And then, with Greater Good, we'veworked with their food program to
distribute food out to low incomepeople in our public so that they
can have food when they're in a bind.
Yeah.
It's all about public relations,who we can talk to, who we can work
together, what our shelter can do,what you can do for our shelter.
Dixie (13:39):
Now, can you talk a little bit more about your spay
neuter program that you have?
Kelsey (13:45):
Absolutely.
That is my baby.
It's my brain child.
So last year in 2024, we spayed andneutered 961 Felines and canines,
which is huge for a shelter our size.
That's just an outstanding number.
And it started in 2020.
I really had no idea.
(14:05):
I just knew spay neuter is thefoundation of cleaning up population.
That's where you have to start everything.
So we had a vet come in and shewas like, this is what you need.
You need this, and this.
And literally listed out allthe items we would need to have
a spay neuter clinic start.
(14:27):
And so we started with her and itwas really just shelter animals.
We weren't doing anythingfor the public at that time.
Just because of liability.
We weren't really a well versed team yet.
We were still, hitting ourtoes every once in a while.
And then in 2021 we gota little bit bigger.
(14:48):
So instead of doing five dogs toclinic, we were doing 15 dogs to clinic.
And then in 2022, allof a sudden we're doing.
30 annals every single week.
And then in 2024, at one time wehad five different vets working
at our shelter on rotation.
(15:10):
And we were sometimes doingtwo or three clinics a week.
And it really, it got to be overwhelming.
So as 2025, we haveslacked off a little bit.
We're still trying to do betweenthree and four clinics a month,
and we're doing 30 to 40 animals.
Actually this Saturdaywe're doing a massive event.
(15:31):
We are doing 60 animals this Saturday.
So we've all been prepared for a 12hour shift this Saturday at the shelter.
Dixie (15:39):
Do those events fill up pretty quickly
? Kelsey (15:41):
Absolutely.
So we actually have seen, which isincredible, a lower number of cat calls.
We have seen a lessening ofpeople needing to get cats in.
Now, when we make a post, obviously we geta lot of calls, but we're still seeing,
we're still having to like, reach out topeople and be like, Hey, do you have cats?
(16:04):
Do you have cats?
You need done, does yourneighbor have cats that need
done because we need cat spots.
And so that in itself is just.
Such, such a cool data point to have.
Because I remember two years agowhere every other call was a cat call.
It was a cat, dog, cat, dog.
(16:26):
And now maybe we're getting one,two cat calls a week and that's it.
Dixie (16:32):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
And usually
Kelsey (16:33):
it's to get into our spay neuter clinic.
Dixie (16:36):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Kelsey (16:37):
It's been a shock.
But between our clinic and the WashingtonHumane Society, crossroads Clinic, we're
probably doing almost 300 cats a month.
Between the two of us.
Phil (16:50):
Yeah.
I know out here by us, there's timeswhere we gotta try and book a month
or two ahead to try and get cats done.
'cause they're just, slammed.
That's amazing that y'allcan get that many done.
Kelsey (17:02):
And look, if we, if you have cats and you need cats in, we
have money for TNR Cats right now.
But our normal price for cats is only $25.
That is what it costs for youto get a cat into our clinic
and have it altered vaccinated.
It now we do a mandatory ear tipthat is mandatory for us, and
(17:24):
pretty soon we're gonna startactually tattooing our ear tips.
Instead of creating a secondary incisionon the abdomen, we're just gonna add
tattoo ink to the already tipped ear and.
So that's, I think that's gonna stopa lot of owned cats from coming to
us just because, I know they don'twant their little cat to have a
(17:45):
green line on the tip of its ear.
But we're really doing this for, TNRcats while we do book owned cats.
It's really for these ferals thatare out in the community populating.
Dixie (17:57):
Right, how many animals can your shelter accommodate
as far as cats and dogs?
Kelsey (18:03):
So we have three cat cages, but we do not at this
time take cats from the public.
If we did just open our doorsand say, Hey, if you have a cat
you don't want bring it here.
We would be inundated.
It would just be nonstop.
We would have a hundredcats on the first day.
So the cats that we do get are all fromother municipalities, whether it be fire
(18:25):
department, police department say theygo out on a call, there's a cat in a
situation that is unsafe, they'll call us.
We take that feline from them,but we don't take owned or stray
cats from the general public.
So we have three cat housesthat we can safely house cats.
Long term, we have 12 dog runs,so really if it's 12 adult dogs,
(18:51):
that's really all we can house.
But obviously like a litter of puppies,you can put them together in the same run
or maybe you can put two dogs togetherif they're from the same household.
But right now we have 26animals at the shelter,
so we're super full.
Dixie (19:11):
And now you limit intakes by appointment only, is that correct?
Kelsey (19:16):
So we have an intake list.
So what happens is when people call usand they have an owned or a stray dog,
the first thing we ask is send pictures.
Because when we, we geta lot of lost dogs too.
So the first thing we do is takea look at that picture doesn't
match anything that's lost.
If it doesn't match anything that'slost, then we send it out to our rescue
(19:37):
partners that we have a little group for,and we'll send it out to them because
there's always a possibility that theycan pull that dog in faster than we can.
Then they go on our intake list andas we get adoptions and dogs out, we
immediately call the next person in.
A lot of times we get a big holdupbecause we'll have someone that has,
(19:58):
12, 14, sometimes 28 dogs at one time.
And so we have to, get all ofthose animals in from that one
area before we can move on tothe next person in our list.
Dixie (20:15):
Do you have a foster system in place or do you rely more
on the rescues foster systems?
Kelsey (20:23):
So we really don't have fosters in Washington Parish.
And most of the fosters that are in theparish are pretty much their own rescues.
They're not pulling from ourshelter, they're not pulling they're
pulling straight off the street.
We have posted certain dogs forfoster and not received anything.
(20:44):
Back from them.
And then I know with like ourHumane Society, they haven't been
able to really get fosters eitherto come forward for certain dogs.
So we have some fosters, but mostof the fosters that we have are
like very specific kind of animals.
Like only small dogs, only puppiesonly, certain dogs of if they have
(21:06):
like a health issue or something,they're not just pulling straight out
of the shelter because we're full.
So that's not really anoption that we have right now.
We are prepared for fosters.
If you foster through us, food isgiven, medical is given, we'll give
a kennel to take the animal home sothat you have a kennel at home if you
(21:27):
need to put the animal in the kennel.
We just don't have peoplereaching out, to offer fostering.
Dixie (21:36):
I know shelters get a bad rap.
What are some of the misconceptions peoplehave about shelters or shelter animals?
Kelsey (21:44):
The biggest misconception is that, we're just killing everything.
It comes in, we kill it, we getsomething else in, we kill it,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
There are very few sheltersin 2025 that are doing that.
Do they exist?
Absolutely.
They don't exist in Washington Parish.
Dixie (22:02):
That's wonderful.
Kelsey (22:03):
We are an entirely no kill parish.
And I say that with quotationsbecause every shelter, because of
public safety, has to euthanize dogs.
We have to, if a dog comesinto the shelter and it is a
danger to itself or others.
We cannot allow that animal backout on the street to harm someone.
(22:27):
Not every dog that comes into the shelteris perfect or flawless or can be fixed.
We're getting dogs and that havekilled other dogs like literally
have damned something so badthat it is no longer living.
We obviously can't allow that togo back out into our population.
(22:47):
We have dogs that come in that haveseverely bitten people and once
they're passed that stray hold andit is up to a judge most of the time.
But if we get the order that dog is notallowed back in the public we, we can't
let that dog back out into the wilds.
The other reason that wewould euthanize is for health.
(23:07):
If we have a dog that's come in andit's been hit by a car and it's pelvis
is shattered, it's, kidney has blown.
We would be doing a disservice to holdthat animal in the hopes that someone
else has the finances to help that animal.
And we just don't do that, obviously.
(23:28):
If something comes in and it's injured,we're gonna do everything we can.
But there's also a certain line andwe talk to our vets, I'll call my
vet and I'll get on FaceTime or sendpictures and be like, this is what
I have, this is what's going on.
What do you think?
And if they turn around and theysay, you can't help that dog.
Okay, we cannot help this dogso we won't allow suffering.
(23:54):
We are absolutely that.
It is qua quality of lifeover quantity of life.
And so that's our biggest misconception.
I would say the other oneis that, we don't care about
the animals in the shelter.
That we just, take them in and it's we'llhold 'em and then, throw 'em back out.
That's not true at all.
Our dogs are babies.
(24:15):
I remember the dogs that I'vehad throughout the years.
People come into the shelter andthey're like, yeah, I adopted
this dog from you three years ago.
And I'm like, yeah, I remember that dog.
I love that dog.
The dog looked like this.
And it had this marking because these,there, there's a reason we work with
animals, and it's because we love them.
We love them so much that we wanna doeverything we can to save them and protect
(24:38):
them and make sure that they're giventhe best life possible in the shelter.
Some of the dogs are treated better inthe shelter than they could be treated.
In a home.
Because we are giving themenrichment every single day.
Right.
They're getting yardtime every single day.
(24:58):
They're getting walked.
I know a lot of people, evenmyself, I don't walk my dogs.
I'm like, you go out in the yard and play.
I'm not taking you for a walk.
Ours are getting walked around.
They're getting jobs to doeven while at the shelter.
And we have three actual sheltercats, which are our babies.
They're inside, outside Free Roamers.
(25:20):
We have Bob who is literally our logo cat.
He's on our shirts.
He's on our rugs, he's on our logo.
Love him.
He's a Bob Tail and on our logo, he wasactually dumped at the shelter three years
before the shelter existed, where it was.
Oh wow.
And the guys next door, 'cause wehave the road crew next door, they
just fed him and took care of him.
(25:41):
Yeah, so he is almost nine years old nowand the shelter is literally his home.
He doesn't know anythingelse but the shelter.
Always been there.
Then we have Thomas, which was probablylike a panleuk kitten and she survived,
but she has the neurological issues,so she walks in circles constantly.
(26:03):
That's my baby.
I love her.
I adore her.
She follows me everywhere I go.
And then we have Willow whohas an autoimmune disease,
so she drools everywhere.
To the point where she literally,if she shakes her head, drool
just flies everywhere and shegets sick like every other day.
That's our babies.
(26:23):
We love them.
Phil (26:24):
I know the feeling.
Dixie (26:25):
What is the adoption process like?
Kelsey (26:28):
So we have a very easy adoption price price process.
So you walk in our shelter,we'll take you to the back.
You can look at all ofthe dogs at any time.
If you see a dog that you want andyou want, some time with it, we
have an adoption room where youcan go in there, hang out with
the dog as long as you want to.
(26:51):
If at the end you're like, yeah,absolutely, I wanna take this dog home.
As long as that dog isaltered, you can adopt.
Same day we have a contract tofill out and our normal adoption
price is a hundred dollars.
But that covers, vaccines, spayand neuter, worm, everything.
And usually we'll even give heartworm andflee intake prevention for the next month.
(27:17):
So you're getting a lotfor that a hundred dollars.
But we do specials all the time.
A few weeks ago we had a black dogspecial where all adoption fees were
waived if you adopted a black dogbecause we had seven black dogs in
the shelter and they weren't moving.
So we were like, okay, let'sget 'em into some homes.
Dixie (27:35):
Yeah.
It's a shame that the black dogsand black cats are the ones to least
or least likely to get adopted.
Kelsey (27:43):
I heard something and now I can't remember where I heard it from,
but, and it was one of my teachers.
But she said that the animals in theshelter are the animals in your community.
So if our shelter is full of pit bullbreeds, that means that's what people
(28:03):
in our community are wanting becausethey wouldn't be in our shelter if
they weren't, if there wasn't triplethe amount in the general population.
So even though we had all of thoseblack dogs, maybe it was the price
that was the factor because allof those black dogs got adopted.
Dixie (28:22):
Oh, that's great.
That's great.
Kelsey (28:24):
Yeah.
We don't have any of them.
Boots was the last one to be adopted,and she got adopted last week.
So every single one ofthose black dogs, so it's.
It is hard and a lot of times, I'llget a big giant pit bull in the
shelter and I'll go, alright bud,you're gonna be with us for a while.
(28:44):
But a while is not forever.
And even if they're with us fortwo or three months, they're
still gonna get adopted.
There's some special home outthere, but it also gives us
time to work on that animal.
So if the animal comes in and it's, notfractious, but let's just say it's a
very hyper animal who doesn't know howto walk on the leash, and that's why the
(29:05):
owner brought it into the shelter wasbecause it was jumping all over them.
That gives us the time to put in that workso that dog doesn't jump on them anymore.
And now we have a dogthat's behaviorally sound.
Dixie (29:17):
Do you offer any kind of support to adopters after they take the animal home?
Kelsey (29:24):
Yes and no.
So if it is a puppy and it is underthe age where it has gotten all of
its vaccines, we continue vaccinatinguntil that puppy is fully vaccinated.
If they come in and they're like,Hey, we need some warmer, or we
need this, we'll continue that.
We used to have partners that weworked with like there was a grooming
(29:45):
salon that offered a free bath.
If you adopted through us wedo give out like trainer cards.
We work with K Pro K nine, and, everybodyleaves with a card and it's Hey, if
you have any problems, call them.
They're who we partner with, they're gonnabe able to walk you through everything.
But not really anymore.
(30:06):
There's not a lot to give afterwardsonce they leave the shelter.
We wish that were different, but wejust, don't have aftercare resources.
Dixie (30:18):
And what about in terms of a hurricane coming or a disaster,
do you evacuate your animals or doyou have a place for them to go?
Kelsey (30:28):
Yeah, so actually by the state we have to have evacuation plan sent to them.
I think it's every March, but Iusually try to send mine in January
so I don't have to worry about it.
But yeah if, we're really not at risk fora fire because of where the shelter is,
where surrounded by pea gravel, we have,parking lots, roads, the whole nine yards.
(30:48):
So really fire is off the table.
Our building has been through amillion and a half hurricanes.
She's still standing.
So unless the roof came off,we probably wouldn't evacuate.
Our really only concern is ifa tornado comes through, but
Washington Parish government has.
Been so incredible to this shelter.
(31:08):
And that is such a rare thing to saywhen you talk about, municipalities
and their shelters usually they'rejust like, oh it's underfunded.
They don't care about it.
Washington Parish governmentabsolutely cares about our shelter.
We have an incredible generator.
I don't even know how big it is, but itis massive and it can run the shelter
for three days if the power is cut off,which is just absolutely incredible.
(31:33):
We have cots, we havetarps, we have kennels.
We have everything we would needin an emergency to move those dogs.
And we have partners that if somethinghappened inside the shelter, if
we had a fire inside the shelterand we had to move everybody out,
we have places where they can go.
Dixie (31:51):
And how is the shelter funded?
'cause you touched on that a little bit.
Kelsey (31:55):
Yeah, so we do not have dedicated funding.
So we, our parish, our people do not paya specific tax that comes to the shelter.
We also don't have animal control,so we don't have any funding from
like tickets or fines or fees.
We are based off of a percentage ofmoney that is given to our health units.
(32:22):
So they have a budget and we, it'slike we're taking some money from
them and that's what we live off of.
So a 90% of what we do off of donationsand the partners that we work with.
So if you look at it broken down.
(32:42):
What we get for, from the healthunit, for our, yearly fund
that pays for the employees.
And then we have a littlebit left over for supplies.
And that's pretty muchour budget for the year.
Dixie (32:56):
So are supplies something that is needed?
Do you get donations fromindividuals as well as these
rescue groups that you work with?
Kelsey (33:05):
So I will say we don't have a large volunteer pool.
We don't have a large foster pool.
But when it comes to our publicgiving donations to the shelter,
buying things off of our Amazonwishlist, they are incredible.
They're unstoppable.
I feel like we have to make athank you post like every other
(33:28):
day for someone donating somethingto the shelter they're donating.
Food.
We have two different types offood at the shelter that we feed.
So at our dogs are fed,Purina, any kind of Purina.
And then we have a prison program atRayburn Correctional where we send dogs
for six months to get obedient trained.
(33:49):
They feed pedigree over there.
So a lot of times we'll needfood for our shelter or we'll
need food for that program.
And so we'll make a post and beinglike, Hey, we need food for the prison.
And then we'll get, 10 bags within a week.
So yeah our public's reallygood when it comes to donations.
Dixie (34:09):
How can people volunteer at the shelter and what types of
volunteer opportunities are available?
Kelsey (34:15):
So we are open Monday through Friday from eight to four.
We have a Saturday clinic,maybe once a month.
But most of the time everyonethat works at the shelter right
now is mothers with children.
And most of our children areyoung like 10 and younger.
So we try and take our weekends whenwe can, but you can just come in like
(34:38):
we're open eight to four, so you canwalk in and be like, Hey, I'm here.
I wanna volunteer.
And there's always something to do.
Most of the time it has to dowith cleaning because that is the
thing that takes up the most time.
But it's also the thing that getspushed back the most because it's
(34:59):
really hard to we have right now, 5,6, 7, 8, we have eight taxis in the
shelter that are just sitting in themiddle room, in the front room because.
We were cleaning today, we were doingpaperwork, we were doing everything else.
And I was like, I just don't have timeto break these down and clean them.
So a lot of it has to do with that.
(35:19):
But right now we have like14 huskies at the shelter.
Wow.
And we are desperately, yeah.
Yeah.
We had a hoarding case, so it wasactually 22, and we've been able to
move some into rescue, but we stillhave 14 at the shelter, not including
our other dogs that were already there.
(35:40):
And we had six of those.
So, we are desperate right now forsomeone to come and bathe these poor
huskies because they're so dirtyand they like, have mats all over
them because of all the loose hair.
And that's definitely aneed we have right now.
We also have some fencing and stuff,not fencing, but like shaders that we're
(36:05):
trying to put up at the shelter that wejust have not had the time to put up.
So I have all the materials and the zipties just sitting there and I'm like,
I don't know when I'm gonna get to it.
Dixie (36:16):
Yeah I like that you're allowing people to just go in
and help whenever they need to.
'cause I know a lot of other placesare a lot more structured and
they're like, oh, we don't wantthe help if you can't commit to it.
But a lot of times people can't commit.
But some help is better than no help.
Kelsey (36:32):
Absolutely.
If, so, what we see a lot is someonelike will come in and they have
like court ordered service hours.
And because of the way we'restructured, a lot of people can get
those service hours done in one day.
And it's okay, you've come in, I knowI'm probably never gonna see you again,
so I'm gonna use you all day andthen I'll, I'll never see you again.
(36:54):
But thank you so much for the help.
But yeah, it's not easyto volunteer at shelters.
It's almost a job like you'revolunteering to do labor.
We don't have paperwork tasks,we don't have filing tasks
like that's taken care of.
We need help with the animals.
We need help cleaning.
(37:15):
We need help like wrapping first,like first spay, neuter clinic.
We have Ms.
Carolyn who is absolutely incredible.
She comes two or three days before ourspay neuter clinic and we'll wrap like
40 to 50 spay neuter packs for us.
And that's her entire day is justsitting at a desk dealing with
(37:36):
surgical tools and wrapping them.
And that's all she does for an entire day.
It's so incredible.
Like every time she comesin, I'm like I adore you.
Thank you.
Because that's one of my employees.
And our shelter, we onlyhave four employees.
We're actually down an employeeright now, so we're only at three.
And then because of our spayneuter clinic this Saturday,
(37:57):
we've all had to stagger days off.
Or else we would belike 20 hours over time.
So this almost this entire week, we'veonly had two employees at the shelter
dealing with this massive amount ofanimals and everything that we need to
clean and everything that we need to do.
And you just can't do it in eight hours.
(38:18):
Eight hours is not long enough.
And if you wanna go home and sleep,it's okay, go home, go sleep, go find
something to eat, and just be preparedto sweat your butt off the next day.
Dixie (38:29):
Yeah, I love that you're so passionate about working at the shelter.
That's great.
And so what would you say is themost rewarding part of your job?
Kelsey (38:40):
A few years ago, I would've said when the dogs get adopted, I
understand sheltering way more now.
And honestly, I will say the mostrewarding part of sheltering is
understanding that I am doing something.
I am saving lives.
(39:02):
There's a lot of sleepless nights,there's a lot of heartbreak and heartache.
A lot of people will say youhave to make yourself cold.
They say that in nursing too, is youjust have to shut yourself off, but we're
human and you can only shut yourself offfor so long before you just break down.
And every morning I go into theshelter and some mornings I'm like,
(39:28):
I just don't wanna be here today.
And then other mornings I'mlike, I'm so grateful to be here.
But the most rewarding part for me is atthe end of the day when I'm going home,
I'll ask myself, is there anything that Icould have done more for my animals today?
Sometimes that answer is yes.
(39:50):
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes I could have spent extratime, but when that answer is no,
when I am going home and I know thatI have done everything that I could
possibly do for my animals thatday, there is nothing more rewarding
to me than being able to say that.
Dixie (40:09):
What are your hopes for the future of animal welfare in your community?
Kelsey (40:16):
So in the parish, I'll definitely say that, we all get on the same page.
We have a educational base with ourpublic that we're all in kind of agreement
with the way that animals should betaken care of, the way they should be
treated, how shelters work, how animalcontrol should work, what the laws are.
(40:37):
That's every shelter director's biggestgoal is that everybody's on the same page.
When we go out on a call or when a dogcomes into the shelter, everybody kind
of underst understands like basic careand basic the basic needs of an animal.
That's such a big thing.
We have hosted educational classes in thepast on dogs and cats and TNR to be able
(41:02):
to get our public in and be like, Hey.
You guys got a new puppy, youwanna vaccinate this puppy?
Let me tell you all about vaccinatingand worming and what we can do and
how we can help you make this puppysuper healthy for the rest of its life.
And, oh, you have a dogthat's out on a runner.
Let me show you how to makethis dog's life the best, even
(41:23):
though it's an outside dog.
Let me show you how we can makethis better for this dog and why
this dog needs this to keep this dogsane while it's outside on a runner.
Because if someone is doing somethingwrong, it's my job to educate them to
do something right, because they're notbeing malicious if they don't know better.
(41:48):
So we have to have kindness withthe people that don't know better.
Because before I got into theshelter, I didn't know better.
I have learned, and I can't stand on apedestal and say, oh, I'm the smartest
person in the world, because I wasn't.
I had to be educated on it.
So we have to educate everybody.
I will say on a state level, I wish thatanimal ordinances were universal and
(42:15):
obviously that's not a perfect systemand that probably will never happen.
But
that there is more structureto animal shelters.
Not all animal shelterswill be built identically.
But that we should all be able toaccess the same care and resources
so that we don't have littlepodunk shelters that don't have any
(42:39):
resources or don't have anything.
We've definitely seen that with, theBogalusa shelter recently that got shut
down, they just didn't have the resources.
There was one employee there who wasworking seven days a week, and that
in itself is just, you can't do that.
You can't run on that.
And that's my hope is that everybody canhave the same resources, all the dogs
(43:03):
can have the same amount of food and vet,access to vet care and stuff like that.
Dixie (43:10):
Yeah.
Absolutely I totallyagree with you on that.
Especially rural shelters, areoften overlooked and they don't have
the funding that they should have.
Kelsey (43:21):
Yeah.
And they don't have, theydon't have the education too.
I know a lot of, I, I won't callout anything specifically but a lot
of the education for animal controlin Louisiana is very expensive.
Very expensive to be able to go to someof these courses and get basic education.
(43:44):
And if they don't have access to that,how are they supposed to know better?
Dixie (43:49):
Absolutely.
I didn't know that there wasn'tany kind of resource for them where
they could just go learn the thingswithout taking these workshops.
Kelsey (43:58):
Yeah.
Unless they're willing to go on their ownpersonal time and go to another shelter
and learn from them, or stay on the phoneor, just find stuff out on the internet.
There's no easy access to basicanimal sheltering education.
You have to know somebodyto find something out.
(44:19):
Or you have to pay an arm and a legand go, four or five hours away.
A lot of the big conventions that we havewent to and have not went to like the Best
Friends National Conference last year ora few months ago, it was in California.
We wanted to go, that's not an option.
(44:40):
We don't have the fundingfor a California conference.
But the year before it was inFlorida and we can drive to Florida.
So we were like, okay,let's go to this conference.
We learned so much.
It was absolutely a great, wonderful time.
But we can drive there.
So it's less cost comparative to going toCalifornia where you're gonna have three
(45:03):
different flights that you have to takejust going and, that's just too expensive.
So, yeah, a lot of the educationfor animal control and animal
sheltering is behind a paywall.
Dixie (45:14):
So where can our listers learn more about your shelter and get involved?
Kelsey (45:21):
I will say the first thing is just come in.
There's no reason to ever think thatyou can't come to the shelter if
the shelter, if you ever come to theshelter and the shelter's closed,
it's a, either a holiday or the entirestaff has had to go do something.
Being a small staff, if someone takes off.
Then, the whole shelter kind of has toclose because we don't have anybody there.
(45:47):
So I know Wednesday we had somebody come to the shelter and
that's when we were picking up thehoarding situation with 22 dogs.
It was me and one other employee.
So when we left to go get these 22dogs, because we both had to go do
that, we couldn't do it by ourselves.
We had to close the shelter.
Our shelter has a phone number.
(46:07):
It's (985) 205-2023.
We have a tin roof inthe middle of nowhere.
So if you call our shelter and youget the voicemail, please leave a
voicemail or send a text message.
We'll get back to you assoon as we possibly can.
But sometimes if the shelterphone is not in the front window.
(46:27):
It will not ring for us.
So make sure you leave a voicemailor send us a text message.
You can also get in touch withus through Facebook Messenger.
We all have that on our phones now, so ifsomething comes through, we can see it.
We probably won't respond untilbusiness hours, but we'll definitely
be able to, receive that message.
Dixie (46:48):
And what message would you like to leave our listeners with?
Kelsey (46:54):
If you want to be involved, don't be afraid to get involved if
you can't get physically involved.
Share posts on Facebook.
When you see animals on the sideof the road, or you see someone
sharing something, mark down thatlocation, send that location to us
(47:14):
with a description of the animal.
If you don't have social media,you can't physically get involved.
You're stuck at home all day.
Maybe think about fostering.
There's so many ways to assist,and if your passion is animals, you
can help even in the smallest ways.
Dixie (47:36):
I definitely agree with that.
I've enjoyed the conversation a lot.
It's very inspiring to know thatyou started basically from nothing
and got to where you are now.
It really is amazing.
Kelsey (47:49):
Thank you.
Phil (47:50):
I've seen a bunch of your dogs last year.
At Pet Fest at Lafreniere Parkand there were some, well.
Cared for
animals.
And
Kelsey (47:57):
thank
you.
Phil (47:58):
So I just wanna know, are y'all gonna be at Pet Fest again this year?
Kelsey (48:02):
We are not because of our short staff, we had to decline this year.
We were really sad about it anddefinitely sad because we declined
before we got in the Huskies.
So we're definitely likeregretting that decision.
But right now we just don't have,we don't have the staff and we
(48:22):
don't have the volunteers to be ableto do such a big event like that.
Dixie (48:30):
And the Huskies, do you have those huskies online on your Facebook page?
Kelsey (48:35):
They're not posted yet.
We're going through them.
Some of them are vaccinated andspayed, neutered, some of them are not.
But they, we were supposed to getpictures today, but we did not get
pictures of them because we were cleaning.
But yes, as soon as we post them, we'regonna be able to say which ones are
ready to go immediately and which oneshave to wait to be spayed or neutered.
(48:57):
Nothing is ever adopted out of ourshelter, unspayed and un neutered.
That just does not happen with us.
Dixie (49:03):
Yeah, that's a very important thing too, 'cause we don't need a whole
bunch of extra huskies running around.
Kelsey (49:10):
Yeah.
And I do wanna say, just in case any othershelter directors listen to this that is
not a dis on any shelter that has to adoptout because they cannot hold animals.
Some shelters have no choice but to adoptout unaltered animals with a contract.
It is what it is.
And I'm not judging it, isour availability to be able
(49:34):
to spay and neuter everything.
So we are going to spayand neuter everything.
We can do it, so we aregonna do it, but it is rare.
It's not all the timethat you can do that.
Dixie (49:43):
Thank you so much for speaking with us and I learned a lot.
It's a lot of things about theshelter that I did not know.
It almost sounds like you'rea rescue instead of a shelter.
Kelsey (49:53):
We run like one.
But at the end of the day, we arestill there for public safety.
Not being animal control has aideda lot and us being able to do the
things that we do we are working ongetting animal control for the parish.
Our parish needs animal control.
(50:13):
It does not have it right now.
And that's somethingwe're working towards.
And obviously once we becomeanimal control, things may change.
But we're hoping that, we canstill do what we're doing and maybe
expand the shelter, get more runs,get more employees, have a bigger
volunteer base that's willing to,do physical stuff in the shelter.
(50:35):
And if they're willing to do that and comeout and, I don't see us changing too much.
I just see us expanding in the future.
Dixie (50:43):
Yeah.
The more animals you can help, definitely.
The better.
Kelsey (50:47):
Absolutely.
Dixie (50:48):
All right, thank you so much.
Kelsey (50:50):
Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me.
Dixie (50:52):
And that's all the time we have for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue, or ifyou know someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show
. Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Today, let's welcome Kelsey Knight.
She is the director of theWashington Parish Animal Shelter.
hi Kelsey.
How are you?
I am good.
I am excited to talk with you today aboutthe Washington Parish Animal Shelter.
(00:24):
That's something that a lotof people don't know what goes
in into working at a shelter.
A lot of people know the rescueside, but they don't know
anything about the shelter side.
To start, can you describe yourjourney to becoming the director of
the Washington Parish Animal Shelter?
Kelsey (00:39):
As a young kid, I always wanted to work with animals.
I think some of us are justborn with that calling.
And I can definitely say that.
So when I got out of highschool, I started grooming dogs.
So I was a dog stylist, and I realizedas I was working that I had this
knack for working with dogs thatwere super fearful of being groomed.
(01:03):
So I let that become my specialty.
And I had, clients that justfollowed me wherever I went because
no one else could do their dogs.
And then I started doing cats and bathingand trying to cut a cat while it's fully
awake and aware of what's going on.
Not many people want to do that,but I was like, I can do it.
I have the patience.
(01:24):
So I.
Started doing cats and I gotreally burnt out very quickly.
I did grooming for six years,and by the end of those six
years I was just exhausted.
I didn't have the energy to go into work.
I was pushing clientsback and pushing them back
because by that point I hadnothing but, fearful dogs and cats.
(01:47):
And so every day it was just a strugglewith every single client I had.
And I started getting taggedin a Facebook post, and I'm not
really on Facebook a lot, so I waslike, let me see what's going on.
And they had a position for a sheltermanager and I had volunteered at shelters.
I had groomed dogs at shelters and rescue.
(02:09):
So I was like, I think I wanna do this.
I immediately had it in my head ofI know where I want my parish to go.
I know what I want to do with this.
So I went in and I interviewed and Ibawled like a baby in the interview.
I just cried my eyes out and Iwas like, this is my dream job.
. I've always wanted to work with animals.
(02:29):
I've always wanted to save livesand give everything I have to them.
And this is the bestopportunity in the world.
There's no greater job thanbeing like a shelter manager.
And I somehow got the job.
So in 2019, I walkedinto a empty building.
(02:53):
It had nothing in it except like a couch.
It didn't even have desksor chairs or anything.
And within I think two weeks wehad our first three dogs at the
shelter, which were just drops off.
Someone had seen or found outthat there was gonna be a shelter
there, so they came and droppedoff some dogs and I was like, okay.
Their names were Paul Lolaand Trunk, and they really.
(03:16):
Taught me a lot on how towork with dogs in the shelter.
And, you had, one of themhad been bitten by a snake.
So I immediately had to figureout how do I talk to vets?
How do I, deal withthis and live with this?
And now it's been almostsix years at the shelter.
Dixie (03:34):
Wow.
That's amazing.
That's a interesting story goingfrom the grooming to doing that.
That's wonderful.
Phil (03:40):
So, so the shelter started in 2019.
That was the in inception ofthe Washington Parish shelter.
Kelsey (03:46):
Yeah, the doors opened August 8th, 2019.
Phil (03:50):
Oh, fantastic.
Okay.
So you were there from the beginning then.
Okay, cool.
Kelsey (03:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was the first
employee and I'm still there.
Dixie (03:57):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Kelsey (04:02):
It really, I'll say it depends on the day of the week.
It depends on.
A whole lot of stuff.
We are absolutely believers that,if it's a full moon, it's gonna be
crazy because every time there'sa full moon, everything's crazy.
But mostly a normal day, let'ssay the, we're not doing intakes.
We don't have like crazyadoptions or anything.
(04:23):
It's a lot of paperwork, , alot of on the phone.
I have spent an entire eight hourshift on the phone and then I go
home and I'm like, I can't talk.
Don't ask me how my day was.
I'm so tired of talking.
Lots of data collection.
That's a big part of myjob is the smallest thing.
I'm like, okay, how can I use this factto learn more about my parish and learn
(04:49):
more about the animals and learn moreabout my adoption pool so that I can do
better and make my dogs better make us.
A bigger asset to the parish
and then we have, sometimeswe have crazy days.
Dixie (05:05):
Right.
Yeah, I can imagine.
What are the biggest challengesthat face your shelter right now?
Kelsey (05:12):
Having a parish that is overwhelmed with our animal population,
both with canines and felines.
We have so many kittens andpuppies and dogs and cats that we
don't have empty homes right now.
A lot of even my adopterscome in and they're like, oh
(05:33):
yeah I have two dogs at home.
How does this dog act with other dogs?
Or I have two cats, so howdoes this dog react to cats?
It's very rare to get.
A new adopter that does notalready have pets in the home.
So we see a lot of times, especially whenwe're out in the field doing like adoption
events at Tractor Supply or other placesthat people walk by and they're like,
(05:58):
I would adopt, but I have three dogs Iwould adopt, but I have five animals I
would adopt, but I am already at capacityfor what I can care for in my home.
And so that's our biggeststruggle right now.
If we had more adoptions, we couldget more dogs in that needed help and
really move our animals much quicker.
(06:19):
So then you fall back onwhat about transports?
During Covid we hadtransports out the wazoo.
Everything was getting shipped everywhere.
Even dogs with like behaviorproblems or health issues.
We were able to get those dogs outto New York, New Jersey, Washington.
And what happened was we overwhelmed them.
(06:40):
We sent so many animals up north that nowthey're overburdened with our population.
I'm still getting calls frompeople being like, yeah, I adopted
this dog in, 21 from you guys.
I'm like, oh, you justcalled me from Minnesota.
What is my dog doing in Minnesota?
So we really don't have, those optionsto send out massive amounts of animals.
(07:05):
And so everything has fallen back intowhat we can get out in the parish.
So that's number one.
Bottom line, if we had more openhomes, empty homes, we could get
more adoptions, which in turnallows us to take in more animals.
Dixie (07:20):
And what types of animals do you typically see coming into the shelter?
. Kelsey (07:26):
So we are not animal control at the shelter.
So we don't have any legal authority.
We can't go out and seize animals.
We can't go out and, writecitations or do anything like that.
So mostly what we see arestray and owner surrender.
So an owner surrender, obviously,they chose to care for that animal.
(07:46):
Have that animal, we put them on ourintake list, we get that animal in on
the opposite side, you have your straysurrender where maybe a stray dog has
come into the yard or maybe like it's abusiness or something, and they're like,
there's no owner, no one's claiming it.
It needs to come into the shelter..
Now we do take in almost all ofthe emergency cases that come.
(08:08):
Through like our phonelog or our messages.
So we get a lot of dogs that areseverely injured hit by a car, different
stuff like that just because we'resuper medically based at the shelter.
So we're actually able to carefor those animals and treat them.
Phil (08:26):
Okay.
And I know y'all are in a rural area.
Do you ever take anything otherthan cats or dogs dogs, like any
kind of livestock or anything?
Kelsey (08:35):
So we don't have the capacity for livestock.
We've helped assist in some situationswith horses and goats and stuff,
but we don't have the space or thefencing to actually house animals.
We have gotten some birds of prey that wesent out, so we've gotten a falcon before.
Owls, you get your little babysquirrel calls and raccoons and
(08:57):
possums and stuff like that, butwe cannot keep them at the shelter.
So even if we're holding themshort term, we have to send them
out to a sanctuary or a rescue.
Dixie (09:08):
And how has the shelter adapted to changes in animal
welfare practices over the years?
Kelsey (09:15):
I will say in 2019, I didn't know anything.
I was so green, like I hadno idea about anything.
But one thing about me personally is.
All I do is research.
All I do is educate myself.
So anytime someone was like, oh, we'regonna have a course about this, or
(09:37):
we're gonna have a class about this,or we're gonna be talking about this,
I'm like let me in on that Zoom call.
Let me drive over hereand see what's going on.
And so then once you start meetingthe other directors of the shelters
and you start meeting, you know thesegenius minds, you're able to, call
them up and say, Hey, I'm confused aboutthis, or I just got this situation in.
(10:02):
And then you meet vets who are like, yeah,gimme a call if you're ever, confused
about something or if you need help.
And then you step up and now allof a sudden you're talking to
the directors of, shelter med atLSU, . Learning, everything about
my job is learning data collection.
What can I do better?
Where can I do better?
So when we started, we were basic medicalprotocol, basic training, basic welfare.
(10:29):
We had no idea.
And now when a dog comes into our shelterwithin 24 hours, that dog has almost been
fully medically treated for everything.
It's been wormed, vaccinated,heartworm tested, it's given
like flea and tick prevention.
We've looked that dog over completely.
Our vets are already aware that Hey, whenyou come in, this dog has my belly button
(10:52):
hernia or this dog is a criptorchid.
Or all of those things.
And then we reach out to thetrainers that we work with and we're
like, Hey, this dog is super shy.
Would you be willing to comeup and work with this dog
for, one or two times a week?
We have a trainer that comes.
Twice a week to the shelter,to dog test our dogs.
(11:15):
Then we have an incredible man who liketwice a week comes and walks every dog
in our facility, just takes them out ona walk and walks them to get out energy.
Like we're, we put our all intothese animals at the shelter.
Dixie (11:33):
Do you ever collaborate with animal welfare organizations
or other community groups?
Kelsey (11:40):
Oh, absolutely.
So Washington Humane Society hasbeen one of our biggest partners
from the inception of the shelter.
We rely on them so much.
They are like the friends ofWashington Parish Animal Shelter.
They helped us get our startwith spay neuter clinic.
They were the ones who found the fundingto get us the anesthesia machines and the
(12:03):
tables and the stuff that we have now.
If there's ever a situation wherewe're , we need help, getting this.
Oxygen thing or whatever, likethey're the ones that we call when
we need help with that side of it.
But they support us in multiple ways, likeespecially sharing our Facebook posts.
Anytime we make a Facebook post, they're,it's an immediate oh, I know they're
(12:26):
gonna share it, it's gonna get totheir audience, which is not the same
audience that we have at our shelter.
We've worked with bigger groupslike Bissell best friends.
Greater good.
We've, worked with them.
We're part of Bissell'sFix the Future Program.
So they actually pay our vetsto come in and spay and neuter
(12:49):
animals for our public, pay themin full to do all of that work.
But then Washington Humane Society,they get grants for all of the cats.
So right now, in March we're doingover, I think actually we might be at
a hundred Cats this month, and theyhave paid for every single one of
(13:12):
those cats to be spayed or neutered.
Dixie (13:14):
That's great.
So we don't have any.
Kelsey (13:16):
Yeah, we don't have anybody paying for cats this month.
And then, with Greater Good, we'veworked with their food program to
distribute food out to low incomepeople in our public so that they
can have food when they're in a bind.
Yeah.
It's all about public relations,who we can talk to, who we can work
together, what our shelter can do,what you can do for our shelter.
Dixie (13:39):
Now, can you talk a little bit more about your spay
neuter program that you have?
Kelsey (13:45):
Absolutely.
That is my baby.
It's my brain child.
So last year in 2024, we spayed andneutered 961 Felines and canines,
which is huge for a shelter our size.
That's just an outstanding number.
And it started in 2020.
I really had no idea.
(14:05):
I just knew spay neuter is thefoundation of cleaning up population.
That's where you have to start everything.
So we had a vet come in and shewas like, this is what you need.
You need this, and this.
And literally listed out allthe items we would need to have
a spay neuter clinic start.
(14:27):
And so we started with her and itwas really just shelter animals.
We weren't doing anythingfor the public at that time.
Just because of liability.
We weren't really a well versed team yet.
We were still, hitting ourtoes every once in a while.
And then in 2021 we gota little bit bigger.
(14:48):
So instead of doing five dogs toclinic, we were doing 15 dogs to clinic.
And then in 2022, allof a sudden we're doing.
30 annals every single week.
And then in 2024, at one time wehad five different vets working
at our shelter on rotation.
(15:10):
And we were sometimes doingtwo or three clinics a week.
And it really, it got to be overwhelming.
So as 2025, we haveslacked off a little bit.
We're still trying to do betweenthree and four clinics a month,
and we're doing 30 to 40 animals.
Actually this Saturdaywe're doing a massive event.
(15:31):
We are doing 60 animals this Saturday.
So we've all been prepared for a 12hour shift this Saturday at the shelter.
Dixie (15:39):
Do those events fill up pretty quickly
? Kelsey (15:41):
Absolutely.
So we actually have seen, which isincredible, a lower number of cat calls.
We have seen a lessening ofpeople needing to get cats in.
Now, when we make a post, obviously we geta lot of calls, but we're still seeing,
we're still having to like, reach out topeople and be like, Hey, do you have cats?
(16:04):
Do you have cats?
You need done, does yourneighbor have cats that need
done because we need cat spots.
And so that in itself is just.
Such, such a cool data point to have.
Because I remember two years agowhere every other call was a cat call.
It was a cat, dog, cat, dog.
(16:26):
And now maybe we're getting one,two cat calls a week and that's it.
Dixie (16:32):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
And usually
Kelsey (16:33):
it's to get into our spay neuter clinic.
Dixie (16:36):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Kelsey (16:37):
It's been a shock.
But between our clinic and the WashingtonHumane Society, crossroads Clinic, we're
probably doing almost 300 cats a month.
Between the two of us.
Phil (16:50):
Yeah.
I know out here by us, there's timeswhere we gotta try and book a month
or two ahead to try and get cats done.
'cause they're just, slammed.
That's amazing that y'allcan get that many done.
Kelsey (17:02):
And look, if we, if you have cats and you need cats in, we
have money for TNR Cats right now.
But our normal price for cats is only $25.
That is what it costs for youto get a cat into our clinic
and have it altered vaccinated.
It now we do a mandatory ear tipthat is mandatory for us, and
(17:24):
pretty soon we're gonna startactually tattooing our ear tips.
Instead of creating a secondary incisionon the abdomen, we're just gonna add
tattoo ink to the already tipped ear and.
So that's, I think that's gonna stopa lot of owned cats from coming to
us just because, I know they don'twant their little cat to have a
(17:45):
green line on the tip of its ear.
But we're really doing this for, TNRcats while we do book owned cats.
It's really for these ferals thatare out in the community populating.
Dixie (17:57):
Right, how many animals can your shelter accommodate
as far as cats and dogs?
Kelsey (18:03):
So we have three cat cages, but we do not at this
time take cats from the public.
If we did just open our doorsand say, Hey, if you have a cat
you don't want bring it here.
We would be inundated.
It would just be nonstop.
We would have a hundredcats on the first day.
So the cats that we do get are all fromother municipalities, whether it be fire
(18:25):
department, police department say theygo out on a call, there's a cat in a
situation that is unsafe, they'll call us.
We take that feline from them,but we don't take owned or stray
cats from the general public.
So we have three cat housesthat we can safely house cats.
Long term, we have 12 dog runs,so really if it's 12 adult dogs,
(18:51):
that's really all we can house.
But obviously like a litter of puppies,you can put them together in the same run
or maybe you can put two dogs togetherif they're from the same household.
But right now we have 26animals at the shelter,
so we're super full.
Dixie (19:11):
And now you limit intakes by appointment only, is that correct?
Kelsey (19:16):
So we have an intake list.
So what happens is when people call usand they have an owned or a stray dog,
the first thing we ask is send pictures.
Because when we, we geta lot of lost dogs too.
So the first thing we do is takea look at that picture doesn't
match anything that's lost.
If it doesn't match anything that'slost, then we send it out to our rescue
(19:37):
partners that we have a little group for,and we'll send it out to them because
there's always a possibility that theycan pull that dog in faster than we can.
Then they go on our intake list andas we get adoptions and dogs out, we
immediately call the next person in.
A lot of times we get a big holdupbecause we'll have someone that has,
(19:58):
12, 14, sometimes 28 dogs at one time.
And so we have to, get all ofthose animals in from that one
area before we can move on tothe next person in our list.
Dixie (20:15):
Do you have a foster system in place or do you rely more
on the rescues foster systems?
Kelsey (20:23):
So we really don't have fosters in Washington Parish.
And most of the fosters that are in theparish are pretty much their own rescues.
They're not pulling from ourshelter, they're not pulling they're
pulling straight off the street.
We have posted certain dogs forfoster and not received anything.
(20:44):
Back from them.
And then I know with like ourHumane Society, they haven't been
able to really get fosters eitherto come forward for certain dogs.
So we have some fosters, but mostof the fosters that we have are
like very specific kind of animals.
Like only small dogs, only puppiesonly, certain dogs of if they have
(21:06):
like a health issue or something,they're not just pulling straight out
of the shelter because we're full.
So that's not really anoption that we have right now.
We are prepared for fosters.
If you foster through us, food isgiven, medical is given, we'll give
a kennel to take the animal home sothat you have a kennel at home if you
(21:27):
need to put the animal in the kennel.
We just don't have peoplereaching out, to offer fostering.
Dixie (21:36):
I know shelters get a bad rap.
What are some of the misconceptions peoplehave about shelters or shelter animals?
Kelsey (21:44):
The biggest misconception is that, we're just killing everything.
It comes in, we kill it, we getsomething else in, we kill it,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
There are very few sheltersin 2025 that are doing that.
Do they exist?
Absolutely.
They don't exist in Washington Parish.
Dixie (22:02):
That's wonderful.
Kelsey (22:03):
We are an entirely no kill parish.
And I say that with quotationsbecause every shelter, because of
public safety, has to euthanize dogs.
We have to, if a dog comesinto the shelter and it is a
danger to itself or others.
We cannot allow that animal backout on the street to harm someone.
(22:27):
Not every dog that comes into the shelteris perfect or flawless or can be fixed.
We're getting dogs and that havekilled other dogs like literally
have damned something so badthat it is no longer living.
We obviously can't allow that togo back out into our population.
(22:47):
We have dogs that come in that haveseverely bitten people and once
they're passed that stray hold andit is up to a judge most of the time.
But if we get the order that dog is notallowed back in the public we, we can't
let that dog back out into the wilds.
The other reason that wewould euthanize is for health.
(23:07):
If we have a dog that's come in andit's been hit by a car and it's pelvis
is shattered, it's, kidney has blown.
We would be doing a disservice to holdthat animal in the hopes that someone
else has the finances to help that animal.
And we just don't do that, obviously.
(23:28):
If something comes in and it's injured,we're gonna do everything we can.
But there's also a certain line andwe talk to our vets, I'll call my
vet and I'll get on FaceTime or sendpictures and be like, this is what
I have, this is what's going on.
What do you think?
And if they turn around and theysay, you can't help that dog.
Okay, we cannot help this dogso we won't allow suffering.
(23:54):
We are absolutely that.
It is qua quality of lifeover quantity of life.
And so that's our biggest misconception.
I would say the other oneis that, we don't care about
the animals in the shelter.
That we just, take them in and it's we'llhold 'em and then, throw 'em back out.
That's not true at all.
Our dogs are babies.
(24:15):
I remember the dogs that I'vehad throughout the years.
People come into the shelter andthey're like, yeah, I adopted
this dog from you three years ago.
And I'm like, yeah, I remember that dog.
I love that dog.
The dog looked like this.
And it had this marking because these,there, there's a reason we work with
animals, and it's because we love them.
We love them so much that we wanna doeverything we can to save them and protect
(24:38):
them and make sure that they're giventhe best life possible in the shelter.
Some of the dogs are treated better inthe shelter than they could be treated.
In a home.
Because we are giving themenrichment every single day.
Right.
They're getting yardtime every single day.
(24:58):
They're getting walked.
I know a lot of people, evenmyself, I don't walk my dogs.
I'm like, you go out in the yard and play.
I'm not taking you for a walk.
Ours are getting walked around.
They're getting jobs to doeven while at the shelter.
And we have three actual sheltercats, which are our babies.
They're inside, outside Free Roamers.
(25:20):
We have Bob who is literally our logo cat.
He's on our shirts.
He's on our rugs, he's on our logo.
Love him.
He's a Bob Tail and on our logo, he wasactually dumped at the shelter three years
before the shelter existed, where it was.
Oh wow.
And the guys next door, 'cause wehave the road crew next door, they
just fed him and took care of him.
(25:41):
Yeah, so he is almost nine years old nowand the shelter is literally his home.
He doesn't know anythingelse but the shelter.
Always been there.
Then we have Thomas, which was probablylike a panleuk kitten and she survived,
but she has the neurological issues,so she walks in circles constantly.
(26:03):
That's my baby.
I love her.
I adore her.
She follows me everywhere I go.
And then we have Willow whohas an autoimmune disease,
so she drools everywhere.
To the point where she literally,if she shakes her head, drool
just flies everywhere and shegets sick like every other day.
That's our babies.
(26:23):
We love them.
Phil (26:24):
I know the feeling.
Dixie (26:25):
What is the adoption process like?
Kelsey (26:28):
So we have a very easy adoption price price process.
So you walk in our shelter,we'll take you to the back.
You can look at all ofthe dogs at any time.
If you see a dog that you want andyou want, some time with it, we
have an adoption room where youcan go in there, hang out with
the dog as long as you want to.
(26:51):
If at the end you're like, yeah,absolutely, I wanna take this dog home.
As long as that dog isaltered, you can adopt.
Same day we have a contract tofill out and our normal adoption
price is a hundred dollars.
But that covers, vaccines, spayand neuter, worm, everything.
And usually we'll even give heartworm andflee intake prevention for the next month.
(27:17):
So you're getting a lotfor that a hundred dollars.
But we do specials all the time.
A few weeks ago we had a black dogspecial where all adoption fees were
waived if you adopted a black dogbecause we had seven black dogs in
the shelter and they weren't moving.
So we were like, okay, let'sget 'em into some homes.
Dixie (27:35):
Yeah.
It's a shame that the black dogsand black cats are the ones to least
or least likely to get adopted.
Kelsey (27:43):
I heard something and now I can't remember where I heard it from,
but, and it was one of my teachers.
But she said that the animals in theshelter are the animals in your community.
So if our shelter is full of pit bullbreeds, that means that's what people
(28:03):
in our community are wanting becausethey wouldn't be in our shelter if
they weren't, if there wasn't triplethe amount in the general population.
So even though we had all of thoseblack dogs, maybe it was the price
that was the factor because allof those black dogs got adopted.
Dixie (28:22):
Oh, that's great.
That's great.
Kelsey (28:24):
Yeah.
We don't have any of them.
Boots was the last one to be adopted,and she got adopted last week.
So every single one ofthose black dogs, so it's.
It is hard and a lot of times, I'llget a big giant pit bull in the
shelter and I'll go, alright bud,you're gonna be with us for a while.
(28:44):
But a while is not forever.
And even if they're with us fortwo or three months, they're
still gonna get adopted.
There's some special home outthere, but it also gives us
time to work on that animal.
So if the animal comes in and it's, notfractious, but let's just say it's a
very hyper animal who doesn't know howto walk on the leash, and that's why the
(29:05):
owner brought it into the shelter wasbecause it was jumping all over them.
That gives us the time to put in that workso that dog doesn't jump on them anymore.
And now we have a dogthat's behaviorally sound.
Dixie (29:17):
Do you offer any kind of support to adopters after they take the animal home?
Kelsey (29:24):
Yes and no.
So if it is a puppy and it is underthe age where it has gotten all of
its vaccines, we continue vaccinatinguntil that puppy is fully vaccinated.
If they come in and they're like,Hey, we need some warmer, or we
need this, we'll continue that.
We used to have partners that weworked with like there was a grooming
(29:45):
salon that offered a free bath.
If you adopted through us wedo give out like trainer cards.
We work with K Pro K nine, and, everybodyleaves with a card and it's Hey, if
you have any problems, call them.
They're who we partner with, they're gonnabe able to walk you through everything.
But not really anymore.
(30:06):
There's not a lot to give afterwardsonce they leave the shelter.
We wish that were different, but wejust, don't have aftercare resources.
Dixie (30:18):
And what about in terms of a hurricane coming or a disaster,
do you evacuate your animals or doyou have a place for them to go?
Kelsey (30:28):
Yeah, so actually by the state we have to have evacuation plan sent to them.
I think it's every March, but Iusually try to send mine in January
so I don't have to worry about it.
But yeah if, we're really not at risk fora fire because of where the shelter is,
where surrounded by pea gravel, we have,parking lots, roads, the whole nine yards.
(30:48):
So really fire is off the table.
Our building has been through amillion and a half hurricanes.
She's still standing.
So unless the roof came off,we probably wouldn't evacuate.
Our really only concern is ifa tornado comes through, but
Washington Parish government has.
Been so incredible to this shelter.
(31:08):
And that is such a rare thing to saywhen you talk about, municipalities
and their shelters usually they'rejust like, oh it's underfunded.
They don't care about it.
Washington Parish governmentabsolutely cares about our shelter.
We have an incredible generator.
I don't even know how big it is, but itis massive and it can run the shelter
for three days if the power is cut off,which is just absolutely incredible.
(31:33):
We have cots, we havetarps, we have kennels.
We have everything we would needin an emergency to move those dogs.
And we have partners that if somethinghappened inside the shelter, if
we had a fire inside the shelterand we had to move everybody out,
we have places where they can go.
Dixie (31:51):
And how is the shelter funded?
'cause you touched on that a little bit.
Kelsey (31:55):
Yeah, so we do not have dedicated funding.
So we, our parish, our people do not paya specific tax that comes to the shelter.
We also don't have animal control,so we don't have any funding from
like tickets or fines or fees.
We are based off of a percentage ofmoney that is given to our health units.
(32:22):
So they have a budget and we, it'slike we're taking some money from
them and that's what we live off of.
So a 90% of what we do off of donationsand the partners that we work with.
So if you look at it broken down.
(32:42):
What we get for, from the healthunit, for our, yearly fund
that pays for the employees.
And then we have a littlebit left over for supplies.
And that's pretty muchour budget for the year.
Dixie (32:56):
So are supplies something that is needed?
Do you get donations fromindividuals as well as these
rescue groups that you work with?
Kelsey (33:05):
So I will say we don't have a large volunteer pool.
We don't have a large foster pool.
But when it comes to our publicgiving donations to the shelter,
buying things off of our Amazonwishlist, they are incredible.
They're unstoppable.
I feel like we have to make athank you post like every other
(33:28):
day for someone donating somethingto the shelter they're donating.
Food.
We have two different types offood at the shelter that we feed.
So at our dogs are fed,Purina, any kind of Purina.
And then we have a prison program atRayburn Correctional where we send dogs
for six months to get obedient trained.
(33:49):
They feed pedigree over there.
So a lot of times we'll needfood for our shelter or we'll
need food for that program.
And so we'll make a post and beinglike, Hey, we need food for the prison.
And then we'll get, 10 bags within a week.
So yeah our public's reallygood when it comes to donations.
Dixie (34:09):
How can people volunteer at the shelter and what types of
volunteer opportunities are available?
Kelsey (34:15):
So we are open Monday through Friday from eight to four.
We have a Saturday clinic,maybe once a month.
But most of the time everyonethat works at the shelter right
now is mothers with children.
And most of our children areyoung like 10 and younger.
So we try and take our weekends whenwe can, but you can just come in like
(34:38):
we're open eight to four, so you canwalk in and be like, Hey, I'm here.
I wanna volunteer.
And there's always something to do.
Most of the time it has to dowith cleaning because that is the
thing that takes up the most time.
But it's also the thing that getspushed back the most because it's
(34:59):
really hard to we have right now, 5,6, 7, 8, we have eight taxis in the
shelter that are just sitting in themiddle room, in the front room because.
We were cleaning today, we were doingpaperwork, we were doing everything else.
And I was like, I just don't have timeto break these down and clean them.
So a lot of it has to do with that.
(35:19):
But right now we have like14 huskies at the shelter.
Wow.
And we are desperately, yeah.
Yeah.
We had a hoarding case, so it wasactually 22, and we've been able to
move some into rescue, but we stillhave 14 at the shelter, not including
our other dogs that were already there.
(35:40):
And we had six of those.
So, we are desperate right now forsomeone to come and bathe these poor
huskies because they're so dirtyand they like, have mats all over
them because of all the loose hair.
And that's definitely aneed we have right now.
We also have some fencing and stuff,not fencing, but like shaders that we're
(36:05):
trying to put up at the shelter that wejust have not had the time to put up.
So I have all the materials and the zipties just sitting there and I'm like,
I don't know when I'm gonna get to it.
Dixie (36:16):
Yeah I like that you're allowing people to just go in
and help whenever they need to.
'cause I know a lot of other placesare a lot more structured and
they're like, oh, we don't wantthe help if you can't commit to it.
But a lot of times people can't commit.
But some help is better than no help.
Kelsey (36:32):
Absolutely.
If, so, what we see a lot is someonelike will come in and they have
like court ordered service hours.
And because of the way we'restructured, a lot of people can get
those service hours done in one day.
And it's okay, you've come in, I knowI'm probably never gonna see you again,
so I'm gonna use you all day andthen I'll, I'll never see you again.
(36:54):
But thank you so much for the help.
But yeah, it's not easyto volunteer at shelters.
It's almost a job like you'revolunteering to do labor.
We don't have paperwork tasks,we don't have filing tasks
like that's taken care of.
We need help with the animals.
We need help cleaning.
(37:15):
We need help like wrapping first,like first spay, neuter clinic.
We have Ms.
Carolyn who is absolutely incredible.
She comes two or three days before ourspay neuter clinic and we'll wrap like
40 to 50 spay neuter packs for us.
And that's her entire day is justsitting at a desk dealing with
(37:36):
surgical tools and wrapping them.
And that's all she does for an entire day.
It's so incredible.
Like every time she comesin, I'm like I adore you.
Thank you.
Because that's one of my employees.
And our shelter, we onlyhave four employees.
We're actually down an employeeright now, so we're only at three.
And then because of our spayneuter clinic this Saturday,
(37:57):
we've all had to stagger days off.
Or else we would belike 20 hours over time.
So this almost this entire week, we'veonly had two employees at the shelter
dealing with this massive amount ofanimals and everything that we need to
clean and everything that we need to do.
And you just can't do it in eight hours.
(38:18):
Eight hours is not long enough.
And if you wanna go home and sleep,it's okay, go home, go sleep, go find
something to eat, and just be preparedto sweat your butt off the next day.
Dixie (38:29):
Yeah, I love that you're so passionate about working at the shelter.
That's great.
And so what would you say is themost rewarding part of your job?
Kelsey (38:40):
A few years ago, I would've said when the dogs get adopted, I
understand sheltering way more now.
And honestly, I will say the mostrewarding part of sheltering is
understanding that I am doing something.
I am saving lives.
(39:02):
There's a lot of sleepless nights,there's a lot of heartbreak and heartache.
A lot of people will say youhave to make yourself cold.
They say that in nursing too, is youjust have to shut yourself off, but we're
human and you can only shut yourself offfor so long before you just break down.
And every morning I go into theshelter and some mornings I'm like,
(39:28):
I just don't wanna be here today.
And then other mornings I'mlike, I'm so grateful to be here.
But the most rewarding part for me is atthe end of the day when I'm going home,
I'll ask myself, is there anything that Icould have done more for my animals today?
Sometimes that answer is yes.
(39:50):
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes I could have spent extratime, but when that answer is no,
when I am going home and I know thatI have done everything that I could
possibly do for my animals thatday, there is nothing more rewarding
to me than being able to say that.
Dixie (40:09):
What are your hopes for the future of animal welfare in your community?
Kelsey (40:16):
So in the parish, I'll definitely say that, we all get on the same page.
We have a educational base with ourpublic that we're all in kind of agreement
with the way that animals should betaken care of, the way they should be
treated, how shelters work, how animalcontrol should work, what the laws are.
(40:37):
That's every shelter director's biggestgoal is that everybody's on the same page.
When we go out on a call or when a dogcomes into the shelter, everybody kind
of underst understands like basic careand basic the basic needs of an animal.
That's such a big thing.
We have hosted educational classes in thepast on dogs and cats and TNR to be able
(41:02):
to get our public in and be like, Hey.
You guys got a new puppy, youwanna vaccinate this puppy?
Let me tell you all about vaccinatingand worming and what we can do and
how we can help you make this puppysuper healthy for the rest of its life.
And, oh, you have a dogthat's out on a runner.
Let me show you how to makethis dog's life the best, even
(41:23):
though it's an outside dog.
Let me show you how we can makethis better for this dog and why
this dog needs this to keep this dogsane while it's outside on a runner.
Because if someone is doing somethingwrong, it's my job to educate them to
do something right, because they're notbeing malicious if they don't know better.
(41:48):
So we have to have kindness withthe people that don't know better.
Because before I got into theshelter, I didn't know better.
I have learned, and I can't stand on apedestal and say, oh, I'm the smartest
person in the world, because I wasn't.
I had to be educated on it.
So we have to educate everybody.
I will say on a state level, I wish thatanimal ordinances were universal and
(42:15):
obviously that's not a perfect systemand that probably will never happen.
But
that there is more structureto animal shelters.
Not all animal shelterswill be built identically.
But that we should all be able toaccess the same care and resources
so that we don't have littlepodunk shelters that don't have any
(42:39):
resources or don't have anything.
We've definitely seen that with, theBogalusa shelter recently that got shut
down, they just didn't have the resources.
There was one employee there who wasworking seven days a week, and that
in itself is just, you can't do that.
You can't run on that.
And that's my hope is that everybody canhave the same resources, all the dogs
(43:03):
can have the same amount of food and vet,access to vet care and stuff like that.
Dixie (43:10):
Yeah.
Absolutely I totallyagree with you on that.
Especially rural shelters, areoften overlooked and they don't have
the funding that they should have.
Kelsey (43:21):
Yeah.
And they don't have, theydon't have the education too.
I know a lot of, I, I won't callout anything specifically but a lot
of the education for animal controlin Louisiana is very expensive.
Very expensive to be able to go to someof these courses and get basic education.
(43:44):
And if they don't have access to that,how are they supposed to know better?
Dixie (43:49):
Absolutely.
I didn't know that there wasn'tany kind of resource for them where
they could just go learn the thingswithout taking these workshops.
Kelsey (43:58):
Yeah.
Unless they're willing to go on their ownpersonal time and go to another shelter
and learn from them, or stay on the phoneor, just find stuff out on the internet.
There's no easy access to basicanimal sheltering education.
You have to know somebodyto find something out.
(44:19):
Or you have to pay an arm and a legand go, four or five hours away.
A lot of the big conventions that we havewent to and have not went to like the Best
Friends National Conference last year ora few months ago, it was in California.
We wanted to go, that's not an option.
(44:40):
We don't have the fundingfor a California conference.
But the year before it was inFlorida and we can drive to Florida.
So we were like, okay,let's go to this conference.
We learned so much.
It was absolutely a great, wonderful time.
But we can drive there.
So it's less cost comparative to going toCalifornia where you're gonna have three
(45:03):
different flights that you have to takejust going and, that's just too expensive.
So, yeah, a lot of the educationfor animal control and animal
sheltering is behind a paywall.
Dixie (45:14):
So where can our listers learn more about your shelter and get involved?
Kelsey (45:21):
I will say the first thing is just come in.
There's no reason to ever think thatyou can't come to the shelter if
the shelter, if you ever come to theshelter and the shelter's closed,
it's a, either a holiday or the entirestaff has had to go do something.
Being a small staff, if someone takes off.
Then, the whole shelter kind of has toclose because we don't have anybody there.
(45:47):
So I know Wednesday we had somebody come to the shelter and
that's when we were picking up thehoarding situation with 22 dogs.
It was me and one other employee.
So when we left to go get these 22dogs, because we both had to go do
that, we couldn't do it by ourselves.
We had to close the shelter.
Our shelter has a phone number.
(46:07):
It's (985) 205-2023.
We have a tin roof inthe middle of nowhere.
So if you call our shelter and youget the voicemail, please leave a
voicemail or send a text message.
We'll get back to you assoon as we possibly can.
But sometimes if the shelterphone is not in the front window.
(46:27):
It will not ring for us.
So make sure you leave a voicemailor send us a text message.
You can also get in touch withus through Facebook Messenger.
We all have that on our phones now, so ifsomething comes through, we can see it.
We probably won't respond untilbusiness hours, but we'll definitely
be able to, receive that message.
Dixie (46:48):
And what message would you like to leave our listeners with?
Kelsey (46:54):
If you want to be involved, don't be afraid to get involved if
you can't get physically involved.
Share posts on Facebook.
When you see animals on the sideof the road, or you see someone
sharing something, mark down thatlocation, send that location to us
(47:14):
with a description of the animal.
If you don't have social media,you can't physically get involved.
You're stuck at home all day.
Maybe think about fostering.
There's so many ways to assist,and if your passion is animals, you
can help even in the smallest ways.
Dixie (47:36):
I definitely agree with that.
I've enjoyed the conversation a lot.
It's very inspiring to know thatyou started basically from nothing
and got to where you are now.
It really is amazing.
Kelsey (47:49):
Thank you.
Phil (47:50):
I've seen a bunch of your dogs last year.
At Pet Fest at Lafreniere Parkand there were some, well.
Cared for
animals.
And
Kelsey (47:57):
thank
you.
Phil (47:58):
So I just wanna know, are y'all gonna be at Pet Fest again this year?
Kelsey (48:02):
We are not because of our short staff, we had to decline this year.
We were really sad about it anddefinitely sad because we declined
before we got in the Huskies.
So we're definitely likeregretting that decision.
But right now we just don't have,we don't have the staff and we
(48:22):
don't have the volunteers to be ableto do such a big event like that.
Dixie (48:30):
And the Huskies, do you have those huskies online on your Facebook page?
Kelsey (48:35):
They're not posted yet.
We're going through them.
Some of them are vaccinated andspayed, neutered, some of them are not.
But they, we were supposed to getpictures today, but we did not get
pictures of them because we were cleaning.
But yes, as soon as we post them, we'regonna be able to say which ones are
ready to go immediately and which oneshave to wait to be spayed or neutered.
(48:57):
Nothing is ever adopted out of ourshelter, unspayed and un neutered.
That just does not happen with us.
Dixie (49:03):
Yeah, that's a very important thing too, 'cause we don't need a whole
bunch of extra huskies running around.
Kelsey (49:10):
Yeah.
And I do wanna say, just in case any othershelter directors listen to this that is
not a dis on any shelter that has to adoptout because they cannot hold animals.
Some shelters have no choice but to adoptout unaltered animals with a contract.
It is what it is.
And I'm not judging it, isour availability to be able
(49:34):
to spay and neuter everything.
So we are going to spayand neuter everything.
We can do it, so we aregonna do it, but it is rare.
It's not all the timethat you can do that.
Dixie (49:43):
Thank you so much for speaking with us and I learned a lot.
It's a lot of things about theshelter that I did not know.
It almost sounds like you'rea rescue instead of a shelter.
Kelsey (49:53):
We run like one.
But at the end of the day, we arestill there for public safety.
Not being animal control has aideda lot and us being able to do the
things that we do we are working ongetting animal control for the parish.
Our parish needs animal control.
(50:13):
It does not have it right now.
And that's somethingwe're working towards.
And obviously once we becomeanimal control, things may change.
But we're hoping that, we canstill do what we're doing and maybe
expand the shelter, get more runs,get more employees, have a bigger
volunteer base that's willing to,do physical stuff in the shelter.
(50:35):
And if they're willing to do that and comeout and, I don't see us changing too much.
I just see us expanding in the future.
Dixie (50:43):
Yeah.
The more animals you can help, definitely.
The better.
Kelsey (50:47):
Absolutely.
Dixie (50:48):
All right, thank you so much.
Kelsey (50:50):
Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me.
Dixie (50:52):
And that's all the time we have for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue, or ifyou know someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show
. Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.
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