LAPLACE — With the help of successful adoption days and animal rescuers, the numbers of animals at the St. John the Baptist Parish is considered low, according to shelter administration.

Shelter manager Racheal Sance said the shelter took in 80 animals in January but has seen as many as 200 in some months.

“The month started off really busy when we opened after the holidays — we got more in than usual,” she said. “We got 35 animals in nine days. If they would have continued to come in at that rate, we would have had to euthanize for space or network our animals to more rescue places to get them out immediately.”

Luckily for the animals and staff the numbers, the rate slowed down.

Sance said the shelter isn’t full at this time, averaging around 45 dogs and 25 cats.

“The problem with animal control is you’re government-funded so you have to take in whatever your parish residents bring in to you,” Sance said. “If you’re full, than you have to make room. Normally, our shelter is lucky enough that we don’t have to euthanize for space. We have enough adoptions and we now work with enough groups that we can get the animals out in one form or another.”

The Shelter held an adoption day Jan. 23, and seven animals found their forever homes through the effort. Those adoptions brought the shelter’s monthly adoptions to 30, doubling numbers from previous years, Sance said.

At the adoption day supports were able to raise enough money to give three dogs heartworm treatment.

“That means two to three otherwise unadoptable dogs will now be able to have homes because we can offer that heartworm treatment,” Sance said.

Sance said that depending on the clinic, treatments cost between $600 to $1,200 for the medication, injections and multiple visits.

There are plenty of animals at the shelter that still need homes, and Sance said she always encourages people to adopt.

“We have adoption days every Saturday (at PetSmart,)” she said. “We are constantly adopting animals, but we also keep getting animals in. The more people that come and adopt the better. People can use petfinder.com and adoptapet.com by searching the name of our shelter and they can check out our Facebook page.”

The St. John the Baptist Animal Shelter is located at 488 W. 2nd St. in LaPlace. It is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. For more information, call 985-651-7387.