Humane Society of Louisiana Inc.

to make Louisiana a more humane and compassionate place, through diverse programs, including cruelty investigation and prevention, direct animal care, community humane projects and general advocacy and education.

Louisiana is a more compassionate state, where the lives of all animals matter.

Goal One: To prevent cruelty to animals, rescue and rehabilitate abuse survivors and see that state and local anti-cruelty laws are enforced and strengthened.

Goal Two: To expand and improve the animal protection infrastructure in our state, to better serve the needs of animals and the people who care for them.

Goal Three: To raise awareness about wildlife protection and to advocate for the care of wild creatures and their habitat.

We have allocated resources towards continuing education.

Our nonprofit has been extremely adaptable, ever since we were founded; had we failed to adapt, we would have been forced to close our doors years ago. For example, our founder initially intended to establish an animal protection lobbying organization; once he opened an office, however, he was inundated by calls seeking help with cruelty cases from around the state. While our pro-animal lobbying efforts continued, we eventually restricted those activities, so that we could form a nonprofit that could provide critically needed, hands-on anti-cruelty programs. We realized that it made no sense to focus solely on passing laws, which would largely go unenforced. To improve our credibility in this area, we even become a licensed private investigation agency, on the strength of our investigative work. Our charity's story has been one of adaptation, from those early years, to our complete reinvention after Hurricane Katrina. in 2005. The small private animal shelter and thrift store we had built over many years in New Orleans were destroyed. With our donors and volunteers dispersed, and most of our assets lost, we had to start over. We have been involved in disaster relief work ever since. This year, disaster once again forced us to adapt to serious external changes. When Louisiana was devastated by Hurricane Ida, our staff fled the New Orleans area and reestablished headquarters two hours inland. Not knowing what had happened to our homes, and often without electricity and needed supplies, we successfully managed to mobilize a multi-parish relief effort, which included: distributing pet food and supplies to pet owners and rescues; assisting displaced people with pets, and coordinating pet adoption transports, which successfully saved thousands of lives. As this year's quick response to Hurricane Ida proved, we are an extraordinarily adaptive group, able to develop and deliver needed services, even in the most difficult and extraordinary circumstances.