Students at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine are helping improve conditions for sheltered dogs and cats this holiday season.The Student Chapter of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians is collecting items and donations for south Louisiana animal shelters from Nov. 23 through Jan. 4.This is the SCASV’s third holiday supply drive since the club’s founding in 2007. Co-presidents Kelli Urbina and Melissa Roth, third-year vet students, said the club combines students who share a common interest for aiding animal shelters and community involvement.”We promote spay-and-neuter programs, adoption events, fundraisers and volunteering,” Roth said.Donations include towels, treats, dog and cat beds, chew toys, litter pans and food and water bowls. Urbina said monetary donations are also encouraged and will go toward the Cat Cage Fund for Walker Animal Control, which will go toward purchasing new cat cages. Donations can be dropped in the holiday-wrapped donation box located in the front entrance of the Vet School on Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.Donated items will go to East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control, West Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control, Ascension Parish Animal Control, Walker Animal Control, Livingston Parish Animal Control and Iberville Parish Animal Control. Roth, who works in animal shelters, said the number of sheltered animals has increased in recent years.”With the economy being what it is, there are a lot of animals that are being relinquished because people don’t have the money for them anymore,” Roth said. Roth said because shelters are taking in record numbers of animals, any form of donation would help.Wendy Wolfson, the club’s faculty adviser, said most shelters in the East Baton Rouge area can have anywhere between 60 to 100 animals.Wolfson is an instructor for the vet school’s shelter medicine program, which takes fourth-year vet students to animal shelters in south Louisiana to administer health         exams and perform spays and neuters to make the pets more adoptable. “We do whatever they need us to do,” she said. “The students enjoy it, and we really make a difference.”Wolfson said local shelters often lack sufficient funding.”The shelters that are run by parishes are very low on the totem pole as far as getting funds and ordering what they need,” she said. “They are cut out of the picture financially.”Shelters can only spend their money on the necessities and items like treats and toys are forgotten because of the lack of funding, Roth said.”We want to help with all the extra stuff they can’t purchase themselves,” Roth said. “We are trying to supply better quality of life, which improves adoption rates.” The more donations the club collects, the more money the shelters will have for other areas like buying more cages, creating more space and making renovations, Urbina said. “These donations really boost the morale of the shelter workers,” she said. “I think it’s very rewarding, and it gets the vet students into the shelters to see what need there is for more involvement.”- – – -Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]