Kudos: Companion Animal Network Television

This is the org that rescued Carmelita and their latest newsletter. You can click on their link and if you scroll down you can see her in a video demonstrating how to humanely trap a dog. She was a star from the beginning!
She was rescued in the October trip to New Orleans. Garo and all these people are volunteers and really wonderful. They go down monthly to bring back animals, then house and socialize them before they are adopted. I don't have cable TV so I've never seen the show, but it's on Animal Planet (duh). Tune in!
Companion Animal Network Television

Having completed our successful transport of 34 dogs and 9 cats in March from the New Orleans outer region animal control agencies in March (50% of which have already been adopted out and all the TV and print news reports are now on our home page at www.CompanionAnimalNetworkTV.org-) we returned two weeks later to look into the possibility of monthly transports.

Between April 4-11 we met with the Directors of the animal control agencies which surround New Orleans. We met with the directors of animal control of St. John’s Parish, Ascension Parish, Terrebone Parish, St. Charles Parish, Plaquamines Parish, as well as several no-kill private organizations in these parishes. We also had telephone conferences with the Directors of animal control of Lafayette Parish and Jefferson Parish. Our partnering local organization, the Humane Society of Louisiana was immensely helpful as usual, as none of this could have been accomplished without their collaboration.

We found every single one of these government run agencies to be operated by the most wonderful, compassionate, and competent people we had ever met. Sadly, almost all of them are forced to euthanize some of their animals (as many as 75% in some instances), especially now as a result of the 25-50% per capita increase in intakes as a result of the coattail affect of Katrina. Yet, they all make every single effort imaginable to save every single life they can. They use every resource to provide veterinary care, hold as long as possible, reunite, and adopt out every animal which comes into their facility. They accomplish miracles on limited governmental resources.

The purpose of our latest trip was two-fold: 1) arrange monthly out of state transports to save those animals’ lives and 2) to get the New Orleans and surrounding area animal control agencies, who have for decades had one of the highest per capita euthanasia rates in the country, to begin operating under Maddie’s Fund guidelines. The long term plan for the New Orleans and surrounding region, as we see it, would be to make a formal Maddie’s Fund grant application after two years. If successful, in two years time, Maddie’s Fund would then bring in millions of dollars of funding for the following 7-10 years to assist the region to go low or no kill at their animal control agencies. For the more immediate future we are hopeful, after meetings and conversations with major national organizations who have stepped up to the plate in the past, that they will financially support the region with such regularly scheduled transports.

We urge you and your organization, shelter, and humane society to join in this effort to help transition the New Orleans area to low or no-kill. We recognize that your area is probably not a no kill area either, however, the goal of reaching no kill in a region of the country can only be reached if one region at a time is transitioned in a collective effort. Due to the horrific catastrophe of Katrina New Orleans is in the position of either re-creating what existed before….one of the highest, if not the highest, per capita kill areas in the nation or, the region can take the bold and exciting step, with the collaborative effort of the rest of the country, to create a low or no-kill community.

One by one all communities in the nation must assist one another to reach our goal of ending the killing of pet animals nationwide. If you help the New Orleans area now by arranging the transport of their animals for adoption to your region (even if you only do one or two transports a year or one or two animals a month) your community will likewise receive national help when your area is ready to make your own Maddie’s Fund grant application to bring no-kill animal control to your community.

The colonial settlers of our country worked collectively, with the entire village working on building each family’s house, and then the next family’s and the next. We can learn a lesson from our forefathers on how to create something out of nothing….by working collectively on each one of our homes at a time.

The next step is ours. We can either do what we know works or stay stagnant and complain that government kills our beloved pet animals.

We at the Companion Animal Network will always choose the former and we hope you will too.

Garo Alexanian

Executive Director