Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the largest animal sanctuary in the United States. On any given day, it houses some 1700 dogs, cats, horses, pot-bellied pigs, bunnies, birds, and a few other species.   Most are dogs and cats.  BFAS is located on 3700 acres in the hills five miles out of Kanab.  Volunteers come from all over to help the caregivers.  You're required to submit a detailed volunteer application, which we did several weeks ago.  Upon arrival, volunteers receive a 90-minute tour and a special orientation and are then given their assignments, based on the preferences they requested.  Mark asked to spend a shift each with cats and wild friends.  I requested two shifts with cats, one with dogs, and one with either (another) cats or with bunnies. 

What an amazing place this is.  It provides sanctuary not just to healthy adoptable companion animals but to those who will likely spend their lives at the sanctuary because of disability.  Many have very sad backgrounds prior to coming to the sanctuary.  The Michael Vick pit bulls were rescued by Best Friends and many have been adopted into loving forever homes after being socialized at the sanctuary; a few are still here.  There are rescues from hoarders, from abusers, from puppy mills, and other horrific situations.  Today we volunteered in an area devoted to special needs cats.  Many were victims of abuse.   One has no back legs, one is paralyzed in the back, one has only one eye, some have neurological problems. All are loved and living a full life in a caring environment with other special needs cats.  Perhaps a special family will come along and adopt some of these cats.  If not, they are guaranteed a long happy life at this no-kill sanctuary.

The facilities for all of the animals are fantastic.  Everyone has indoor and outdoor facilities, plenty of soft places to sleep, good food, all the special care they need by five full-time vets, caregivers, and volunteers.  Mark and I dreamed about what we could do with an acre in Anguilla and some of these ideas.

BFAS has a lovely dining room with an outdoor deck that overlooks the canyons and red rock cliffs.  It's open to employees and volunteers six days a week, serving a vegetarian buffet lunch.  Today we ate there and I recognized one of the founders, Faith Maloney.  I thanked her and she was so gracious. 

If you're interested in learning more about Best Friends Animal Society and the sanctuary, visit www.bestfriends.org.  There is also a very interesting book about the founding of Best Friends: "Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary" by Samantha Glen.   Some of you may have seen the National Geographic series "DogTown", which is about the dogs at BFAS.