Scary statistics inspire the first Meowloween and Yelp this weekend
This weekend marks the premieres of the Rocky Horror Meowloween Show and Yelp Adoption Day. The two new local events are sponsored by local animal rescues that seek to increase adoptions and reduce the area’s euthanasia rate, which soars 33% above the national average.
For many years, Cat Haven rescued and rehomed nearly 300 cats and kittens annually, and provided community education and spay/neuter services for feral cat colonies. In appreciation of the non-profit’s efforts to control a downtown colony behind the restaurant, Dalton’s on Lafayette Street hosts the Rocky Horror Meowloween Show this Friday night.
“For years, we’ve talked about hosting a fun fundraiser outside the capital campaign that includes the Cat Tales & Cocktails Gala,” explains Cat Haven President John McChesney. “We hope this will become an annual event.”
This feline fun fundraiser features an outdoor showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show at 7:30 p.m., followed by live music by Flatbed Honeymoon and a costume contest with inappropriate attire encouraged. Admission is $15. For more information, visit cathaven.org.
The dogs have their day on Saturday at the first-ever Yelp Adoption Day. Over the summer, Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) assembled a consortium of animal rescue groups to create No Kill BR, a citywide initiative to insure no healthy adoptable animal is euthanized.
While a comprehensive blueprint is still in the works, Commercial Properties Realty Trust (a branch of the BRAF), Petz Plaza and other sponsors devised Yelp to make East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control shelter dogs more accessible to potential adopters by showcasing them at multiple locations around town.
Adorable, adoptable dogs are certain to put the howl back into the city’s Halloween at three sites:
* Main and Fifth streets (across from the Red Stick Farmer’s Market) 8 a.m. to noon.
* Perkins Road and Acadian Thruway (Acme Oyster House parking lot) 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
* Coursey Boulevard at Sherwood Forest Boulevard (Lake Sherwood Shopping Center) 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“[We wanted] to do something now, to make an immediate impact [on adoption and euthanasia rates],” says BRAF Project Manager Patricia Calfee. “We hope it will become a monthly event.”
Besides being temperament tested and examined by a veterinarian, all of the Yelp dogs have been vaccinated, spayed/neutered, microchipped and heartworm tested. The adoption fee is just $70.
For more information or to become a Facebook friend, visit yelpbr.com.
Click here for this week’s Creature Feature for a preview of Animal Control’s adoptable dogs.
Click here for this week’s City Lynx.
