{"id":779841,"date":"2025-11-19T08:45:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779841"},"modified":"2025-11-19T09:28:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T14:28:36","slug":"how-could-that-be-controversial-the-nations-biggest-animal-sanctuary-operates-under-the-mantra-save-them-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779841","title":{"rendered":"‘Best Friends’: The largest animal sanctuary operates under the mantra \u2018Save Them All’; how could that be controversial?"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Best Friends’ runs the country\u2019s largest sanctuary for neglected and abused pets, as well as a national network of like-minded shelters. Its property in Utah covers nearly 6,000 acres and houses around 1,600 animals, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs, bunnies and birds. The group was among the earlier animal welfare organizations to come out against the widespread shelter practice of killing animals to relieve chronic overcrowding, forcing the industry to think creatively about sterilizing pets, supporting pet owners and boosting adoptions. It argues that \u201ceuthanasia\u201d is a weasel word. It prefers the frank and direct word \u201ckill.\u201d Its call to action is direct: \u201cTogether, We Can Save Them All”.\u00a0 Yet critics argue that its tactics are uncompromising and sometimes counterproductive. Many see the label as simplistic and divisive. It doesn\u2019t distinguish between private shelters that can regulate their intake and public shelters that often can\u2019t; between rich and poor areas, or urban and rural; between shelters that have staff shortages and those that don\u2019t. Julie Castle, the society\u2019s CEO, responds to the criticism by reiterating the group\u2019s guiding principle: Our pets are our best friends. Why should we be killing them?…<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE:<\/strong> In 1982 a balding, bearded guy named Francis Battista drove through a canyon outside of Kanab, Utah, in a battered blue hatchback. He gazed up at the majestic red walls rising from the lowlands of junipers and pines. \u201cIt\u2019s magical!\u201d he thought. Lowering his eyes, he saw a locked gate with a sign: $3 for a tour map. He paid the woman nearby…<\/em><\/p>\n

Battista and his friends belonged to a new religion called the Foundation Faith of God… Battista and his cohort were in charge of an animal rescue ministry. They were a motley group\u2014architects, Oxford and Cambridge graduates, artists, writers, college dropouts, an engineer, a CPA, a real estate agent, an heiress, a British stage actress, and an Afro-Cuban bass player\u2014who chipped in to buy the small ranch in Arizona on behalf of the Foundation Faith. After taking in a couple hundred animals, they ran out of space, which was what motivated Battista to go looking for more…<\/em><\/p>\n

By 1984, the group had scraped together enough money for a down payment on the ranch in Utah, and they moved in with their 200 adopted pets. Throughout the decade, as they focused on building what would become the Best Friends Animal Society, the religious group began to dissolve. \u201cThe Foundation Faith ran its course,\u201d Battista told me recently. \u201cEverything was being oriented around the animals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, Best Friends is a secular organization that runs the country\u2019s largest sanctuary for neglected and abused pets, as well as a national network of like-minded shelters. Its property in Utah covers nearly 6,000 acres and houses around 1,600 animals, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs, bunnies and birds. It\u2019s so big it has neighborhoods: Dogtown, Cat World, Horse Haven and others. Each animal gets individual medical and emotional care, ideally becoming healthy enough to be placed in a private home.<\/em><\/p>\n

More than 300 employees are joined there each year by 6,000 volunteers and 40,000 visitors, some of whom stay for weeks to play with and care for the animals. The place has become such a popular tourist attraction that the managers bought and refurbished a derelict hotel in town, and a fleet of vans to transport animals and people…<\/em><\/p>\n

But Best Friends has also become a source of controversy. The group was among the earlier animal welfare organizations to come out against the widespread shelter practice of killing animals to relieve chronic overcrowding. Its call to action is direct: \u201cTogether, We Can Save Them All.\u201d Increasingly, Best Friends has taken this goal nationwide\u2014funding training programs, embedding its staff inside struggling shelters elsewhere and offering grants to those that share its vision. In the process, Best Friends has become a major voice in the national conversation about animal welfare, alongside such groups as the Humane Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals…<\/em><\/p>\n

Best Friends is big, and not just in terms of acreage. In recent years, its annual revenue has been more than $173 million. The society has become a marketing juggernaut, with a sophisticated web presence and more than 900 nationwide employees. In 2007, Best Friends began building a national network of like-minded shelters, whose staff members help one another. They relieve overcrowding by transporting animals to less crowded shelters and providing equipment and technical support. In the 2010s and 2020s, they created a network of centers and programs in Atlanta; Bentonville, Arkansas; Houston; Los Angeles; Salt Lake City; and New York City. They hired hundreds of new employees to support regional help centers, offering veterinary care and management expertise…<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet critics argue that its tactics are uncompromising and sometimes counterproductive. \u201cI give them a lot of credit for pushing the industry beyond its comfort zone,\u201d Julie Levy, an expert in shelter medicine education at the University of Florida, told me. \u201cBut sometimes those strategies backfire, and you have to step back and try a different method”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of cruelty investigations at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is a harsh critic of Best Friends. \u201cMaybe they reduce euthanasia, but they don\u2019t reduce suffering,\u201d she said.<\/em><\/p>\n

Few people in the animal shelter world would deny that the no-kill message was valuable decades ago, back when euthanizing animals was the norm. The movement forced the industry to think creatively about sterilizing pets, supporting pet owners and boosting adoptions.<\/em><\/p>\n

But now that national survival rates are around 89 percent, many see the label as simplistic and divisive. It doesn\u2019t distinguish between private shelters that can regulate their intake and public shelters that often can\u2019t; between rich and poor areas, or urban and rural; between shelters that have staff shortages and those that don\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n

Julie Castle, the society\u2019s CEO, responded to the criticism by reiterating the group\u2019s guiding principle: Our pets are our best friends. Why should we be killing them?… Best Friends is committed to rehabilitating every animal it possibly can, only putting down creatures a vet has deemed beyond rehabilitation. It argues that \u201ceuthanasia\u201d is a weasel word. It prefers the frank and direct word \u201ckill”. <\/em>DOUGLAS STARR<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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