Animal Shelter Opens with Philanthropic Dollars

The new Slidell Animal Shelter opened its doors recently to an excited crowd of cats, dogs, and people.  The beautiful new building replaces the old, run down, cramped shelter across the street which had been flooded with six feet of water during Hurricane Katrina.

“I think we can finally put the last chapter of Hurricane Katrina behind us,” said Damian Anti, shelter supervisor, to an eruption of applause.

The shelter’s staff evacuated the animals prior to Katrina, and all staff returned afterward, working 18-hour days to rescue nearly 2,000 stranded animals in the months after the storm, even as many of them worked to rebuild their own flooded homes.

Anti recalls that he “didn’t have a day go by while on vacation that I didn’t get a call because something broke” at the old building.  Two days a week he would bring his tools from home to work with him.  Anti also fell through the floor of the FEMA trailer parked outside the old shelter.

In addition to being much larger, higher elevated, and far more aesthetically pleasing, the new building also boasts superior facilities, heating, cooling, and ventilation.

View from inside the new lobby.

“The dogs are enjoying the AC,” said Anti.  “This new facility will keep the animals healthier.”

A new animal shelter had been needed for many years and the resources to build it came from a California-based group called Noah’s Wish. They were one of the first organizations on the ground right after Katrina working tirelessly to rescue animals.

A story in national media garnered attention for the group, then millions of dollars in donations poured in from around the country.  The California Attorney General’s office later questioned the use of some of those funds, resulting in a court settlement establishing the Noah’s Wish Fund.  $3 million were dedicated to the new Slidell Animal Shelter and $1 million for grants to other organizations that rescued animals in Katrina’s aftermath.

With the resources in place, the shelter took less than a year-and-a-half  to build.

“If there was anything good to come out of Katrina, it was this,” said Anti.

The wagging of tails seemed to signal canine agreement.

As administrator of the Noah’s Wish Fund, the Greater New Orleans Foundation was responsible for overseeing the construction of the animal shelter.