Pictured here during the 2004 Christmas parade, our Adoption Bus will be participating in parades, fairs and other community functions. Now painted and fully outfitted for animals, the bus will help increase awareness of the plight of homeless animals while encouraging adoptions, spaying and neutering.
While our message to the community is a serious one, St. Bernard Parish Animal Control and our Friends of the Animal Shelter prove once again that we can have fun and enjoy ourselves (and so can our pets!) while speading our important message.
St. Bernard Parish Animal Shelter and our "Friends" are very excited about our "new" Adoption Bus. Donated by the Office of Emergency Preparedness, the bus has been outfitted as a Mobile Adoption & Education Center that takes pets out of the shelter and into our community.
It is a fact that there are many people who will never visit an animal shelter - no matter how clean, modern or accommodating - even if they want to save a homeless pet. Studies have shown that, among other reasons, potential adopters say it is too depressing to see so many pets without homes and find it too overwhelming to try to pick just one of them. By bringing our pets out into the community, we will be able to find these potiential new adopters for our shelter's animals.
To discourage "impulse" adoptions, one Saturday per month the bus will go to various preannounced locations with pets ready to be adopted. Other communities that have implemented this type of project have found that their shelter's adoptions have increased substanially. The public's overwhelming support of such a program in Jefferson Parish is shown by the people who stand in long lines waiting to adopt shelter pets every month.
The expense of refurbishing the bus has been assumed by Friends of the Animal Shelter. Thanks to donations from their members, along with family and friends of Keith Babin and a grant from the ASPCA, over $5,000.00 has been raised to purchase items like paint, paneling and other materials to convert the bus for animals, as well as specialty cages to keep our pets safe during transport, a generator for the air conditioning units and lights, and a vinyl coating on the walls and floor of the dog area. Parish employees have painted the bus solid white, inside and outside. Parish mechanics have put the engine into tip-top shape. Parish carpenters have repaired walls, doors, etc. and installed the donated cages. CarCraft donated the materials for Kevin Loria's art class at St. Bernard High School to decorate the bus with bright animal pictures. Parish employees man the bus for adoption days.
The Adoption Bus Project is a wonderful example of what can be accomplished when animal lovers, community volunteers and the St. Bernard Parish Government work together!
