St. Bernard Parish Animal Shelter: REDI Training Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

By staff going through the diversity, equity, and inclusion training, it helped them see their biases and they became more open to adopting to families they would have declined previously.

Staff learned that a "perfect" home looks different in different families.

How many pets did this grant help?

10-15

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

The pictures are of a dog named Doug. Doug is a pit bull and was an owner-surrender. Doug is a blocky-headed, stocky, and powerful, but super sweet, dog.

Traditionally this type of dog would have sat and waited on our adoption floor waiting for the “perfect” family (a homeowner with a fenced yard, and someone resembling our adoption staffers). This family that came in looking for a new pet visited with Doug and fell in love. The husband was boasting about how Doug was going to be sleeping in their bed that night!

Before the staff went through this training, I truly believe this family would have had a hard time and the dog would not have been adopted, and he would potentially still be at the shelter waiting for a new family.