Best Friends Animal Society, founded in 1986, is an American non-profit (501) (c) (3) corporation that through its work during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has become one of America’s best known animal rescue organizations. Best Friends works with shelters, rescue groups and members nationwide to promote pet adoption, spay/neuter services, and humane education programs around the country. A key component of Best Friends’ work is operating the nation’s largest no-kill sanctuary for displaced, homeless or unwanted domestic animals in southwestern Utah near the town of Kanab.[[1]] The society also publishes Best Friends, the nation's largest general-interest animal magazine, with more than 250,000 subscribers.
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History of Best Friends Animal Society
Best Friends had its origin in Arizona in the 1970s with a group of animal lovers who did not accept the conventional wisdom that humane societies and shelters "had no choice" but to euthanize animals deemed as “unadoptable.” In a pilot program, they began rescuing soon-to-be-killed dogs and cats from shelters, rehabilitated them, and found new homes for them. Those still deemed unadoptable formed an eccentric assortment creatures whose numbers grew until in 1986, the group established Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. In 1991 Best Friends became a non-profit, tax-exempt charity, and quickly grew to be the flagship of the rapidly growing no-kill movement throughout the 1990s. Articulating its goal of “No More Homeless Pets,” became central to the society’s work, and by the end of the 1990s, the number of animals being killed in shelters had dropped from about 15 million in 1990 to less than 5 million.[[2]]
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
The sanctuary is located on approximately 33,000 acres (130 km²) -- with 3,000 acres (12 km²) owned by the society and the balance leased from the United States Bureau of Land Management. It is located at Angel Canyon (formerly Kanab Canyon), approximately five miles north of Kanab at the heart of the famous “Golden Circle” of Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon's North Rim, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Lake Powell. The land in and around the town of Kanab is famous as a backdrop for dozens of western movies and television shows, dating back to the 1940s. Among the many dramas filmed in the area were "The Lone Ranger" television series, and the movies McKenna's Gold and The Outlaw Josey Wales.[[3]] On any given day, the sanctuary is home to approximately 1,500 animals, most of which are dogs and cats; but the sanctuary also welcomes horses, burros, wild birds, rabbits, goats, farm animals, and an assortment of other creatures. Animals arrive at the sanctuary from throughout the United States and abroad, primarily from shelters that don’t have the resources to keep them and from shelters where they would otherwise be killed. Many of them are soon ready to go to good homes with permanent or foster families, but if they are not adopted, they live permanently at the sanctuary. Best Friends is the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary, which means that animals, regardless of illness or handicap, can live out their lives in peace. Animals are only put down in cases of terminal and/or extremely painful illness—only when compassion requires euthanasia because there is no reasonable alternative.
Visitors and Tourism at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
Each year more than 25,000 visitors tour and volunteer at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Tours and visits with the animals are available daily throughout the year. Visitors and volunteers are always welcome at the sanctuary, and are a vital part of helping the animals to get ready for new homes. Visitors and volunteers come from all over the world to spend time with the animals and give them the personal attention they would get in a family home. Among the hundreds of volunteers each year at Best Friends includes a large assortment of student groups.
Best Friends’ Work During Hurricane Katrina (2005-2006)
The society’s official role in post-Hurricane Katrina operations was that of a primary animal rescue organization.[4] Best Friends was responsible for rescuing and caring for approximately 4,000 of those animals and helped transport another 2,000 to new locations for adoptions.[5] Animals in the care of Best Friends were reunited with their families, placed in new homes, or brought to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for continuing care. . Best Friends’ rapid response teams entered the embattled hurricane disaster area Sept. 2, 2005, beginning a string of 249 days of work in and around New Orleans.[6] During the course of the society’s work, it expanded search-and-rescue operations to include St. Bernard and Orleans parishes, working in concert with various law enforcement officials, the National Guard, and the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Best Friends’ main base of search and rescue operations was in Tylertown, Mississippi, on the grounds of St. Francis Animal Sanctuary. In addition, the society operated a second rescue shelter at Celebration Station in Metairie, La., and worked with the Humane Society of Southern Mississippi to transport animals brought to their shelter to foster and adoption groups across the country. Utilizing volunteers from across North America—including veterinarians, veterinary technicians, information technology experts, and people from other professions, the society was able to make a major contribution to the hurricane relief effort. Since Katrina, Best Friends has expanded its animal rescue work by providing the manpower and resources to help revitalize the Pets Alive animal shelter in New York State, rescue approximately 600 cats from an abusive situation in Nevada, and provide expertise to assist local animal rescue groups in the aftermath the disastrous Peruvian earthquakes of 2007.[7]
References
External links
- Best Friends official website
- The Best Friends Network
- Not Left Behind: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans by Best Friends Animal Society, photos by Troy Snow
- Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary, by Samantha Glen
- MSNBC coverage of New Orleans animal rescues
