Home/Wildlife Calls: Shelter, LDWF or Operator

Who Handles Wildlife in Lafayette: Shelter, LDWF or a Private Operator?

Checked against Lafayette Consolidated Government, LDWF, Louisiana Department of Health and CDC pages on November 7, 2026. How we research this site.

In Lafayette Parish the shelter will lend you a trap, Wildlife and Fisheries will tell you which operators hold a permit, and the health department wants to hear about any bite or any bat in a bedroom. Getting an animal out of a building is the one job none of them does.

Start here: what is happening, and who answers

Lafayette Animal Shelter and Care Center

Lafayette Consolidated Government runs one shelter, and it describes itself as the municipal shelter serving Lafayette Parish. Strays, nuisance animals and cruelty reports go to it on (337) 291-5644 during weekday business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. After hours and at weekends its Animal Control Officers answer emergency calls only, for dangerous animals and bites.

The part most people do not know about is the trap loan. The shelter’s FAQ answers “How can I remove wildlife or feral cats from my property?” directly: come in on a weekday, sign a loan agreement, take a trap home, and call once something is in it so an officer can pick it up. Its wildlife page also covers coyotes, asks residents to report sightings, and links to LDWF’s list of permitted operators.

Before you set a shelter trap

A trap in the yard works for an animal that is visiting. It does not solve one that is living in the house. LDWF’s own advice for anyone trapping is worth reading first:

• Avoid trapping in spring and early summer, the breeding season for most wildlife. Remove the mother and the young left in the attic or under the house die there.
• Handle a full trap with heavy leather gloves and great care. Animals that look healthy can be sick.
• If you are bitten, do not let the animal go. Contact the state public health veterinarian about rabies testing, and your doctor.

Louisiana’s Title 76 sets out what a property owner may legally do without a permit. Our Louisiana wildlife law page covers it.

Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries

LDWF is clear that it does not remove nuisance wildlife itself. It issues permits to individuals, Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators, who do the work for a fee and are not LDWF or state employees. Their permits cover most species, though not deer, bears, migratory birds or alligators. LDWF counts more than 100 of them statewide.

The operator list on LDWF’s website can be filtered by species and by parish served, so you can narrow it to, say, bats in Lafayette Parish. A permit is issued to a person, so ask the individual who turns up to show theirs.

The department’s wildlife field office for Lafayette Parish is at 200 Dulles Drive in Lafayette, (337) 262-2080. That same number takes nuisance alligator reports in office hours. Staff record the details and give you the name and number of the Nuisance Alligator Hunter for the area, who LDWF says should respond within 24 hours.

Louisiana Department of Health

The Office of Public Health’s Infectious Disease Epidemiology Section keeps a 24-hour line, 800-256-2748. Call it about any bite or scratch from a wild animal, and about a bat found where someone was sleeping. Its 2023 rabies report notes that over the past 20 years most rabies in land animals in Louisiana has turned up in two areas, one in the northwest and one centred on Lafayette Parish, and that the state does no active wildlife surveillance, so reported numbers understate the picture.

Three things that go wrong

Releasing a bat that was in the bedroom. CDC says a bat bite can be too small to notice and asks people not to release a bat found in the home until they have spoken to public health. More on bats in the house.

Killing the snake first. Louisiana’s rules list native snakes, among them the eastern hog-nosed snake and the harlequin coralsnake, that may not be killed or taken without a department permit.

Trapping the mother in April. LDWF’s warning about orphaned young is the most common route to a dead-animal smell in a ceiling a few weeks later. Who deals with that.

Questions people ask

Does Lafayette animal control deal with wildlife?

Partly. The Lafayette Animal Shelter and Care Center lends traps for wildlife and feral cats on weekdays, and an officer collects the animal once it is caught. It does not publish a service for getting an animal out of an attic, a wall or a crawlspace.

Can I borrow a trap from the Lafayette shelter?

Yes. The shelter’s FAQ says to come in Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., sign a loan agreement and take a trap, then call once the animal is trapped. LDWF warns that handling a trapped animal can be dangerous and advises against trapping in spring and early summer, when young may be left behind.

Will Wildlife and Fisheries remove an animal from my house?

No. LDWF says it does not remove nuisance wildlife. It permits private Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators, who charge for the work and are not state employees.

Who handles an alligator in a Lafayette yard or pond?

Report it to LDWF in Lafayette on (337) 262-2080, or to Operation Game Thief on 800-442-2511 after hours and at weekends. LDWF gives you the name of the Nuisance Alligator Hunter for your area. It says alligators under four feet are generally not a threat.