Evan Bisnauth is a nine-year-old boy from Bronx, New York, who prefers going to animal shelters in his spare time. While most boys his age would rather play video games or watch TV, he reads books to dogs.
Evan is a junior volunteer of NYC ACC’s Books with Boroughbreds program. ACC is the Animal Care Center, a non-profit corporation which operates and controls the animal services in New York City. The program aims to help animals get over their fear of humans.
A young dog whisperer
Evan, along with his mom, Amanda Persaud, visits various ACC locations all over New York. When the fourth-grader enters a center, he carefully chooses the animals that he would be reading for that day. He knows that these animals are anxious and are likely scared. When he goes near them, he goes slowly and sits gently just outside their kennel.
He then opens his books and reads in a very calming manner. At first, the dogs would be pacing and sometimes would be barking at him. He has learned to ignore this; he just keeps on reading. Then, after a few moments, the animal would get more comfortable with his presence and would relax.
What is different with Evan is that he has boundless patience and dedication. The adults could see that he genuinely cares for these animals. In fact, not only does he read to them, but he also shares stories about them.
Evan has started his own social media account, which is dedicated to the successes he has made and the plight of the animals. This was spurred on when he learned that one of the dogs that he once read to was euthanized. He wants people to know that they can save these dogs from being put down.
And recently, Evan started his own fundraising campaign to help the dogs in the shelters. He sold sweatshirts and raised a thousand dollars for the ACC.
Source: Inside Edition via Youtube