LA/SPCA director gets a nod from NBC

Laura Maloney is the director of the Louisiana SPCA, and she's a pretty amazing woman. In addition to lowering the euthanasia rate considerably and promoting adoption, spay/neuter, a free tagging program and low cost veterinary care, Laura oversaw the evacuation of the city shelter anytime the city was threatened with a storm greater than a category 2. During and after Katrina, she set up the Lamar-Dixon site, found homes for her now homeless staff, coordinated rescue efforts with other organizations that had arrived to help, and returned to New Orleans to begin refurbishing an Algiers warehouse to accomodate the SPCA's operations after their Bywater shelter was destroyed. (Meanwhile, her husband Dan was living in the Audubon Zoo's reptile house while overseeing the care of the Zoo's animals--he's the head animal "curator" for the Zoo.) But unlike some people, Laura prefers to work and doesn't like to stop to give too many interviews, which I sometimes worry gives the impression that she's not working her ass off. But she is. (And she just spent the past many weeks and months pushing the pet evacuation bill that Louisiana just passed.)

But NBC is running a piece in praise of her work. And it is about time. You can read it here.