Group hopes to bring animal shelter to Morgan City area

A St. Mary Parish humane society is looking for board members and volunteers to establish a new nonprofit group dedicated to helping animals and eventually bring an animal shelter to the Morgan City area.

The Humane Society of Louisiana and Braylins Pet Haven hosted a meeting Thursday at Bayou Vista Branch Library to discuss animal neglect and pet overpopulation in the area.

Jeff Dorson, director of the Humane Society of Louisiana based in New Orleans, has worked for the past 30 years to coordinate with other organizations to help animals throughout the state.

Davontraye Johnson is founder of Braylins Pet Haven, a St. Mary Parish humane society that he’s in the process of organizing into a nonprofit organization. The group encourages and teaches pet owners to spay and neuter and give their pets a wide range of activities to do, Johnson said.

Johnson’s most immediate priority is to find board members, particularly a president, vice president and treasurer, to be able to start the nonprofit group.

Anyone interested in helping can contact him through the Braylins Pet Haven page on Facebook.

Johnson, 24, said he has a passion for helping animals and hopes to bring a facility to the Morgan City area that would function as a no-kill animal shelter and a pet training, grooming, sitting and boarding facility.

His goal is to reduce the stray pet population, overbreeding and animal abuse in St. Mary Parish. Johnson also wants to have a volunteer program and has nearly 50 people who have indicated their interest in volunteering, he said.

All animals adopted from or coming to the facility would have to be spayed or neutered, he said.

The St. Mary Parish Animal Shelter in Franklin is currently the only shelter in the parish and funded by parish government.

Ivory Francois, director of the St. Mary Parish Animal Shelter, has worked at the shelter since 1982. The shelter holds animals brought to the shelter as long as possible while trying to find homes for them, Francois said.

Though the shelter does have to euthanize some animals, officials don’t euthanize healthy animals, Francois said.

Dorson, who’s known Francois for many years, said Francois “cares as much as you do” about the welfare of animals.

“We need to team up and partner and not look at him like someone who doesn’t care. He does,” Dorson said.

Joy Sanders, president of Animal Advocates of St. Mary, said that the group wants Braylins Pet Haven to succeed in its mission and offered the group’s knowledge, assistance and connections.

Sanders, who’s been rescuing animals since 2010, started the effort in St. Mary Parish in 2012 after realizing the parish didn’t have a coordinated program to rescue animals.

Animal Advocates of St. Mary became a nonprofit organization in 2014 and networks with “established rescue organizations” to find homes for animals brought to the parish shelter in Franklin, she said. Sanders suggested Johnson look for grants and talk to people who have grant writing experience.

“You have impressed me tonight with your knowledge,” Sanders said to Johnson.

Animal Advocates of St. Mary will host its fourth annual fundraiser, Jeepers for the Creatures, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 13 at Lawrence Park in Morgan City and will have music, food and a pet costume contest.