Donation

On any given day, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the healing home for up to 1,600 dogs, cats, birds, bunnies, horses, pigs and other animals. The largest sanctuary of its kind in the U.S., Best Friends has become the heart of a collaborative no-kill movement, and a model for the future of animal welfare.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary started in southern Utah in 1984. From there, the work to save the lives of homeless pets has spread across the country and it continues to expand. While the Sanctuary remains the heart and soul of Best Friends, they now have lifesaving centers and programs in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Houston, Northwest Arkansas and other areas.

It's a sanctuary for homeless pets where animals are able to stay for as long as it takes them to find loving homes. Animals may still be euthanized humanely if they are irredeemably sick or injured, but they are not killed in order to make space for more animals.

Save Them All is Best Friends’ call to action. We believe that together with you, we can end the killing of homeless pets in America’s shelters by 2025. In 2022, more than 1,000 dogs and cats were killed in our nation’s shelters every day, simply because they didn't have safe places to call home. But all across the country, grass-roots organizations, animal welfare groups and local governments are abandoning the idea that killing homeless pets is an inevitable and acceptable “necessary evil.” For more information about how to Save Them All in your community, visit bestfriends.org/save .

Absolutely. When Best Friends was founded in 1984, some 17 million animals died every year in our nation’s shelters. In 2022, that number was down to around 378,000. We believe that by working together, we can reduce that number to zero. For more than 35 years, Best Friends has been working to end the killing by running innovative grassroots programs, supporting spay/neuter and trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) programs, promoting shelter adoptions, fighting puppy mills and breed-specific laws, educating the public about animal issues, holding major adoption events, and conducting both large- and small-scale animal rescues. Additionally, the Best Friends Network brings together thousands of animal welfare organizations across the country to help save as many lives as possible. Together, we won’t stop until we Save Them All.