The Delta Humane Society of Louisiana

13/06/2025

Tuesday we had planned to do some much-needed maintenance at the foster farm. Wendell and PK had volunteered their time, and we had started on some needed repairs. But an early morning house fire in our area changed that. You may not know this, but almost all of our firefighters in Northeast Louisiana are volunteers. For the most part, the men and women who respond to fires are ordinary citizens who train and respond to fires out of the goodness of their hearts, and we are lucky to have them. The crew that responded to this fire did a great job, but the house was almost engulfed when they got there and burned completely. The residents were safe, though, and the firemen had the fire completely contained when they realized that three puppies and a mama dog were left behind. The pups and mama were not in good shape, and the residents no longer wanted them, so the fire chief called DHS. We had a volunteer who lives nearby, and he gave the puppies some water and tried to cover the crate they had been living in with something to block the sun until we could figure something out. But the chief called back and said his men were worried that it was still too hot to leave them and asked to take them back to the firehouse until we could come get them. So that's what we did! The mama is a bit skittish and is still at the site, but we are feeding her every day, and we will catch her soon. Her three babies were dehydrated and wormy. They look to be about 4 weeks old, and it's a blessing that they are tiny because the only place we had to put them was a thrown-together kennel made out of an old xpen held together with zip ties with a beat-up cat carrier as their house. But I think they have way better accommodations than they had before. They have had flea prevention, been dewormed, and had their first vaccination today. They have been gobbling up everything in sight, and they are already coming around. Today is the first day they started playing rather than hiding. So I think they're gonna be fine. The two little brown ones are girls, and the black and white is the boy. It looks like mama had an active social life because none of them look alike. The boy is twice the size of his sisters and looks like a Border Collie. The girls look like chocolate labs or something similar but smaller. So, the purpose of this post is to give a shout-out to all the volunteer firefighters, especially the ones in our area. We know they have to be caring people to do the work they do, especially the volunteers. But it goes way above and beyond when, after spending half the day doing heavy, dirty work fighting a fire in 90 degree weather, they took the time and made the extra effort to make sure this little family was safe. 💕

10/06/2025

We want to say "thanks" to everyone that has responded to our plea for food. We are good to go for almost the next month by our calculations. We have 113 dogs in our care right now and food is always our biggest concern, followed closely by veterinary costs. Since we don't get any municipal support, we depend on all of our fans to help us out and you came through for the animals AGAIN!!!. If we aren't able to thank everyone personally, don't think you aren't appreciated. 💕💕💕

04/06/2025

Help! Our cupboards are bare!
DHS has 84 hungry mouths to feed at the foster farm right now and five bags of food (which will last less than 2 days) We are hoping our supporters can help. If you are able and it's in your heart, please consider donating thru PayPal or, if you'd prefer, ordering food from Chewy or Amazon to help us. Dog food, like everything else has become more expensive. We are buying most of our food from Tractor Supply because we have tax exempt status there as a non profit. But even the Pedigree roast chicken, 44 lb that used to be $26 less than 2 weeks ago is now $29.
The links to our Chewy and Amazon accounts are at the top of our page. So is our PayPal address.
If you would prefer, our mailing address is DHS 165 Covington Road Rayville Louisiana 71269.
In addition to the Pedigree 44 lb roast chicken bags of dry food, we need Diamond puppy food.
We are very grateful for your continued support and if you know of any cheaper prices anywhere, please let us know!

02/06/2025

I wanted to take a few moments to update our fans on Shopdog Sally. We have been totally swamped with the work here and I apologize for, what Facebook tells me, is only three posts in 2 weeks.
Thanks to your generous donations, most especially from The Wags and Menace Makes a Difference Foundation, who funded her first two surgeries (yes, she had to have a second and third surgery) and is now looking at a possible fourth surgery. The initial surgery was long and tedious and required cleaning up and piecing back together five breaks in one bone. We thought she was recovering nicely from that so we brought her back to the foster farm for her post-op care but after just a few hours we could tell that something wasn't right. She refused to lie down and would scream every time she had to move. It turned out that one of the multiple pins placed to hold her bone together had shifted a tiny bit but enough to make moving very painful. So a second surgery was performed and the problem was corrected. She came back to DHS and seemed to be happy, eating well and even wanted to walk around a bit to explore. We had weaned her from the pain meds and were very happy with her progress. After a week, we took her back to TVS for a bandage change and that's when it was discovered that she has a jaw that is misaligned and that may need to be corrected surgically. She seems to be eating and drinking just fine but we're not quite sure what the next step will be because the procedure to correct her jaw is not one that we've done before.
This certainly isn't the way I foresaw things going for Sally but we're not giving up. In the meantime I want to thank everyone for all the donations towards her care and especially to the very generous funding of her surgeries by The Wags and Menace Makes a Difference Foundation. Knowing that we don't have any outstanding balance for the initial surgery makes it much easier to plan for her future. We can only help dogs like Sally with your support and we are grateful for it every day
PS. Since I originally wrote this post, Sally has healed enough that the pesky pin that seems to have caused all her pain has been removed. She is a totally different dog! When the pin was hurting her, she would scream at times when she moved and look at us like we were hurting her and she didn't understand why. She was afraid to play much and at times didn't even want to move. Since the pin has been removed, we can't hold her on the ground and we've had to switch gears totally from convincing her it's okay to walk a little, to trying to stop her from running and jumping.
Sally and her BFF, Morgan, are no longer allowed to hang out together because Sally tries to play too much. But we kennel them side by side so they can still visit and they spend most of their days bickering at each other through the bars of their crates.
Thanks to everyone's help and support, after months of care and convalescence and three surgeries to date, Sally is on her way to being a sweet, beautiful AND VERY TALKATIVE girl. She is still looking at her spay surgery and possible jaw surgery but she is pain free and ambulatory now so that's the biggest battle ... WON!

30/05/2025

Update** Not one tub?! We haven't had one response. Surely, with all the cattle ranching around here, someone knows of a few that are taking up space at their farm.
Does anyone have any empty cattle protein tubs that they could donate to DHS? We use them for lots of things but right now, we need them for swimming pools in the kennels in an effort to help the dogs keep cool. Any shape and size will do as long as they hold water. Text 318-304-1448 if you can help and we would be happy to pick them up.

25/05/2025

21/05/2025

One of the perks for being a volunteer driver on the DHS transports is, if at all possible, a trip to Wegmans when we get to Maryland. Even if we didn't get to visit it, the drivers have heard me rave about how much I miss Wegmans. There is nothing like it and for all the Louisana ladies that I have dragged in there, I'm sure it didn't disappoint. Now THIS is a grocery store!

03/05/2025

Behavior “problems” people tell me their dog has (and they want to fix) that I find extremely relatable -

- He doesn’t like it when people he doesn’t know come to the house, especially if it’s a man.
- SAME
*dogs don’t understand company coming over. They have no concept of UPS, Amazon Prime, or family barbecues. The majority of time in human civilization that dogs have existed with us did not include ANY of these things. They are mostly still hardwired to view unknown visitors on their territory as a potential threat or danger. We forget that most of the time we KNOW who’s coming, but our dogs don’t. And imagine if you didn’t know and suddenly a stranger showed up wanting to come in and hug you. I bet you’d freak out too*

- He’s fine with people he knows, but he doesn’t like it if a stranger tries to or does touch him.
- SAME
*dogs are not public property. I wouldn’t allow a stranger to touch my child or baby simply because she’s cute, why my dog? Dogs should be able to choose if they want to interact with someone and people need to learn how to accept and understand when they say no politely, before the dog feels they have to escalate to get more distance*

- She doesn’t want me to touch her while she’s eating and will sometimes growl or grumble if she has a toy and I try to take it away.
- SAME
*ever try to take away a kids Easter candy? How about taking someone’s money that they are holding in their hand? How do you feel when someone takes food off your plate? Sharing doesn’t come naturally to humans OR dogs, but for dogs it’s rooted in survival and completely normal.*

- She growls when the kids lay on her if she’s sleeping, or if I try to move her when she’s on the couch napping.
- SAME
*not wanting to be bothered when resting is also natural and normal. If I groan and get irritated when my kids do that to me, I’m not labeled as aggressive or unpredictable. What dogs do to communicate irritation or discomfort is absolutely acceptable, and yet they are the ONLY creatures that we see this behavior as a problem*

- He used to be fine with big social gatherings like the dog park. Now he’s not.
- SAME
*behavior and ideas of “fun” change as we get older and mature. Same happens to dogs. I’d love a nice bath and a book at the end of the day now, not a night on the town. Nothing happened to me, I just grew up. Dogs are the same way many times. Their likes and dislikes aren’t always concrete and we have to learn to adapt with them, just as we do ourselves*

I seriously could write these all day. All it takes is a mild shift in perspective to see the issues we label as bad or rude or negative in dogs are often COMPLETELY normal mix and “fixing” them first starts with understanding them, then helping your dog, and meeting in the middle. Training is appropriate in lots of different situations but it’s useless if we fail to actually realize dogs as the animals they are. The more we do this, the easier life with these amazing creatures is for both of us.

- Helen St. Pierre

19/04/2025

Take a minute to watch. You won't regret it.

12/04/2025

Everyone has been so generous lately (helping us with puppy pads and puppy food and adult dog food when we asked)until we didn't want to ask for donations again. But, then Sally hobbled up to a local school. She was very thin, weak and not able to use her left hind leg. Since we don't have animal control in our parish or a shelter, they called DHS. When we were told the situation and sent pictures of this sweet puppy, in pain and hungry but still trying to get attention from the kids and staff, we knew we had to try. We were in another parish that day but after speaking with Dr Talley, we were able to arrange for one of the teachers to drop the puppy off at TVS after school. Sally's left hind leg is broken in FIVE different places. It isn't a new injury and she must have been in terrible pain for at least 2 weeks as the bones are already starting to calcify. Despite the pain, she still had to forage for food to survive so she must have stayed very hungry the entire time. To get to the point, she needs help and as usual, our hearts have overruled our heads. We had decided to not take on any more medical dogs as we'd had so many in the past few months and our savings are zilch. But that's not how rescue works. And in Richland Parish, it's not like we can refer them to someone else. Sooo....
MEET SALLY! She is sweet and gentle and so far, the perfect patient. Her surgery, to reposition and pin the broken bones in place, is going to cost about $1,600. Her other care including spay and vaccinations and boarding will bring the total up to about $2,000... that we don't have. So we are asking for your help. Any donation would be so appreciated . If just half of our followers contributed $5, we would have more than enough to make sure this girl is safe and well cared for. Please consider helping her.
Our PayPal address is at the top of the page and our mailing address is DHS, 165 Covington Road Rayville, Louisiana 71269
You can also call Talley Veterinary Services at 318-435-7774 (Monday through Friday) and make a credit card payment of any amount towards Sally's care. We would be so grateful and it would allow us to keep up the work we do in an area that has basically no resources for unwanted animals.
Please share Sally's story and if you have any questions feel free to text 318-303-1448 and we will give you any information we can.