His name is Evan Bisnauth, he is 11 years old, and he is a child who reads books aloud for dogs seeking adoption. He himself says that he doesn’t always have an attentive “audience” when he reads his stories to guests at the Animal Care Centers in Manhattan, United States. Most of the time there are in fact yawns and some dogs even fall asleep, but Evan knows that in these moments the four legs are really relaxed. “I find that animals become less stressed through reading,” he said.
It was the summer of 2019 when Evan’s mom, Amanda Persaud, saw a program that encouraged children to read books for abandoned dogs. So she and her son took a bus from their Bronx home to the Manhattan shelter. “I read to dogs for five hours on the first day. After that, I decided to go there every weekend, ”said Evan, who is in sixth grade. According to him, reading makes dogs more sociable and therefore easier for them to be adopted.
“When I finish my story I always tell the four legs not to give up and that I have a lot of hope for their future”. With the arrival of the pandemic, the number of adoptions increased significantly, but Evan’s visits to the shelter had to be interrupted. But he decided to help his friends in another way, using technology. He has created a Facebook page called “EB and the Pets” followed by more than 800 people, in which he posts videos of dogs in need of a home. Among the more recent ones is the one about Myna, who is nine years old and also has health problems.
And the one about Marco: “he dreams that someone will give him a second chance, he needs someone to continue to train him and he needs a house where there are no other dogs,” explained the child. All the animals Evan promoted have found homes or been taken in by other organizations, and for the family and for the shelter it’s an incredible achievement. Last month Evan also received the “Child of the Year” award from Aspca, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals. Evan hopes this recognition will inspire others his age. “Helping dogs to be adopted gives me a lot of joy – he concludes – and one day I would like to have my own shelter”.
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