How CAAWS Got Started

CAAWS was founded in August 1979 and is the oldest local humane organization. CAAWS was founded by Holly Frederick Reynolds, the mother of the modern humane movement in Louisiana and the founder of such other important Louisiana humane groups as:

St. Tammany Humane Society
Coalition of Louisiana Animal Advocates

To the present time, Holly Reynolds continues to guide and inspire our work.

What CAAWS does

- Finds loving homes for the animals we bring into our adoption program.
- Places adoptable pets in foster homes until a permanent home can be found.
- Promotes the spay/neuter of pets through our own program and by offering discount certificates for spay/neuter procedures.
- Brings animals to retirement/nursing homes for visits.
- Educates students about responsible pet ownership.

How CAAWS does it

We receive no  government funding and are supported by private donations and our own fund raising efforts. CAAWS is run solely by unpaid volunteers and 100% of the funds received goes toward helping animals. Our major fundraising events include the annual Mardi Gras Krewe of Mutts dog parade and the Christmas Santa CAAWS professional pet photo event.

CAAWS has approximately 100 volunteers that work in various areas that it takes to run CAAWS on a daily basis. Our volunteers can be found everyday caring for animals in their home, photographing and videoing animals for adoption, performing shelter maintenance and cleaning, purchasing and stocking supplies, doing clerical work, returning phone calls and emails, making public appearances with adoptable pets, visiting nursing home patients with their pets, performing educational presentations to children, fund-raising, assisting with ongoing Katrina New Orleans feeding stations, assisting and educating the community in spay/neuter efforts, and working on special events just to name a few.

Meet the Board

CAAWS is governed by a board of Directors

Frank Parks- President
Greg Jones- Vice-President
Pam Perkins- Secretary
Glenda Parks- Treasurer
Jenny Kennedy - Marketing
Pam Leavy- Cat TNR & Spay Day Coordinator
Denis Ricou- Publicity
Kathy McCutcheon - Community Relations
AJ Varner- Director