LAFAYETTE PARISH, La. (KLFY) – One of LCG Mayor-President Joel Robideaux’s goals when he took office was to turn the Lafayette Animal Shelter into a ‘No Kill’ shelter by 2020.

On Thursday, shelter executives say they are well on the way to doing that.
    
“To become a no-kill status it needs to be up to 90%. So we’re doing good compared to a few years ago, but we still have a little more of a journey to go,” said Shelley Delahoussaye, supervisor at Lafayette Animal Shelter. 

Substantial progress is being made in efforts to turn the shelter into a ‘No Kill’ one. 

“Our job is to increase the live outcome of the animals. The year before he (Robideaux) took office, we had a 47% live outcome on dogs, so that means 47% of the animals were coming out alive, and only 9% came out on cats,” said Delahoussaye.

Being a municipal shelter like the Lafayette Animal Shelter means they can’t turn any animals away, so that’s why it’s so important to adopt these animals.

“The live outcomes so far this year (2018) are right at 75% for dogs, which is getting close to 90, and 70% for cats,” said Robert Benoit, assistant to Mayor-President Robideaux.

It’s because of a number of new changes.

The City-Parish Council adopted an an ordinance which instituted the ‘trap neuter return’ or TNR program for community cats, which they started in March.

Since they began this imitative, they’ve spay-neutered, provided rabies shots, ear tipped, and returned 107 cats to their home.

The shelter says that drastically decreased adoption fees for the animals to around $35 for dogs and $25 for cats.
As well as free adoption for military veterans and people over 65.

“They’re spayed, neutered, micro-chipped, fully vaccinated, heart-worm protected, so yeah, they’re ready to go,” said Delahoussaye.

“The mayor and i made it very clear to our staff, that they can take any dog that they want. I mean we’ll give them the key to the shelter to rescue dogs and get them out alive. That’s our goal, that’s the mayor’s mission, and that’s all of our mission,” said Benoit. 

The shelter is currently over capacity hosting an adoption event Saturday afternoon from 1 to 3.
Dogs are $35 and cats are $25.