Featured Charity: Best Friends Animal Society

I was reminded of the great work of Best Friends Animal Society while looking for a charity to recommend to my 10-year-old niece. My wife and I bought her a TisBest card for Christmas and wanted to give her a starting point for her search. I thought of her passion for helping animals as I read about the group of animal lovers who founded Best Friends as a small animal sanctuary 25 years ago. Their pilot program rescuing dogs and cats on their way to "E-Day" (euthanasia) led them to build a haven for animals at Angel Canyon in Southern Utah. Today, their 33,000-acre ranch is the nation's largest animal sanctuary for homeless animals.

On any given day, the sanctuary houses about 2,000 dogs, cats, horses, burros, birds, rabbits, and an assortment of other creatures. Most of the animals have special physical or behavioral needs. Through the care of Best Friends' veterinarians, trainers, and caregivers, most of these animals - approximately three out of four - are able to go to good homes after just a few weeks. Animals who are unable to be adopted because of major trauma, age, or chronic illness find a permanent home at the sanctuary.

Best Friends Animal Society has been a leader in the "No More Homeless Pets" campaign: a spay/neuter, adoption, and public awareness program to bring an end to the killing of homeless animals in shelters. They have partnered with organizations across the nation to provide assistance and training to groups looking to create "no-kill" communities. And they are seeing results. According to the website www.utahpets.org, the number of animals euthanized in Utah shelters since 1999 has decreased by 30%.

Best Friends provides a whole host of other services including adoption, spay/neuter, and educational programs; the Best Friends Network; and Best Friends, the nation's largest-interest animal magazine. I encourage you to hop, trot, prance, or strut over to the Best Friends website (www.bestfriends.org) where you'll find incredibly cute pictures of the animals they work with and important information on their work.

We at TisBest congratulate Best Friends Animal Society on 25 years of building a better world through kindness to animals.

Chad Edwards
Charity & Community Relations Manager