Hopes for a "no kill" animal shelter grow in Caddo Parish

Juanita Buchanan has been an animal lover her entire life and had no idea that Caddo Parish Animal Shelter was hoping to adopt a no-kill policy. "These little animals don`t deserve to be killed, or anything, they need a chance. Some people could adopt them or take care of them." The goals of a no-kill facility are to end the killings of cats and dogs that are healthy or that could be redeemed with some medical or behavioral attention. The shelter sees anywhere from 12,000-14,000 animals a year and most of those are dogs. On average 49% of the animals are unwanted. In order to become a no kill or low kill shelter the community has to get involved. "A foster care program so that animals that come in under aged or sick and can`t be adopted right away can be cared for. Not a shelter environment because they are never going to be enough kennels and there is never enough staff," explained Nathan Winograd, founder of "No Kill Solutions," a California-based nonprofit. In addition to more aggressive adoption programs and high volume, low cost neutering. The theory, it will help offset the amount of cats and dogs in the shelter. "We spay and neuter the animals that we adopt out, but we have not gone into a spay and neutering program," admitted Michael Dale, DVM, Director of the Caddo Parish Animal Shelter.