The Lafayette Parish Animal Shelter and Care Center is looking for volunteers.

“They’re beating hearts that give us unconditional love, don’t they?” Mike Badeaux, a volunteer with the animal shelter said.

Badeaux has volunteered with the Lafayette Parish Animal Shelter for a while now. He volunteers every weekday morning getting the animals ready for potential adopters in the afternoon.

“They completely depend on us,” added Badeaux. “They don’t leave home. They don’t go off to college. They’re with you forever. Because of the love we get- it’s in their faces. They get to know us. We get to know them. We walk them and just to get them out to a good home.”

Shelley Delahoussaye, supervisor at the animal shelter, said bringing your pets to the animal shelter should be a last resort, if at all possible.

“I think sometimes people just have a misconception that because we’re moving towards no-kill, they can just bring their animal here, and it should be safe. We are trying really hard for that to happen. However, because we are moving towards that goal we’ve had an influx in surrenders, and so we have the same kennel space. So with more animals, we still have the same space that we had from before,” said Delahoussaye.

Delahoussaye says the animal shelter’s capacity is about 300 to 400 animals. Last year, at this time, the shelter had about 300 cats alone.

“Please if you’re at all interested in volunteering. We welcome you. Come on out. You can’t believe how much fun it is. How much love there is here,” said Badeaux.

Learn how you can volunteer here. 

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