Louisiana inmates trained in shelter animal care

Torrance Hornsby holds Brittney 

ahead of the

dog’s examination.

Dixon Correctional Institute in East Feliciana Parish, has teamed up with the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine to train inmates in the daily care of shelter animals.

The LSU SVM Shelter Medicine Program services animal shelters and feral cat populations on prison grounds using one faculty veterinarian, a shelter medicine fellow, fourth-year veterinary students and trained and prison inmates. 

The Dixon grounds is home to Pen Pals, a no-kill animal shelter, that was constructed after the institute took in several displaced animals during Hurricane Katrina. 

Pen Pals is one of three prisons in the region that participate in LSU's shelter medicine program. Six prisoners work with, and learn from, LSU students. Since its opening in August of 2010, hundreds of dogs an cats have been adopted from the shelter.

Funding was provided by the Humane Society of the United States as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to improve the animal care infrastructure in Louisiana and Mississippi with, not only a holding facility and a clinic for basic animal care, but also a facility that could serve in future emergencies as an overflow shelter. 

For more information, read WITHIN PRISON WALLS - JAVMA News