Best Friends Animal Sanctuary:
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is a unique and special place, being the largest animal sanctuary of its kind in the country. The level of work, care, and heart of the Best Friends organization is far beyond anything I've experienced. The sanctuary and the surrounding area are stunningly beautiful. The story of its founding and its founders is one of love, vision, passion, and perseverance, as highlighted in the book “Best Friends - the true story of the world’s most beloved animal sanctuary.”
Here are a few examples of the unique and amazing things they have done:
• Best Friends started an initiative many years ago to eliminate all kill shelters across the United States and are remarkably on track to reach their goal.
• Best Friends took in many dogs from the infamous Michael Vick home, where they were abused and forced into a life of vicious fighting. Other well-known experts and animal welfare organizations concluded that these dogs were now vicious killers, beyond hope, and needed to be euthanized. Best Friends intervened and not only saved them from this fate but also rehabilitated them and provided these dogs with wonderful lives. You can read about this inspiring and amazing story of some of these dogs in Jim Gorant’s book “Lost Dogs.”
Our Experience with Best Friends:
In early 2015, my daughter Hailey came out of her room one night and asked us if we would donate to an organization she found online (Best Friends) that she thought was doing wonderful things for animals. We agreed, and after looking into the organization, we were equally impressed. Hailey mentioned that she would love to visit and volunteer there at some point. We agreed that this sounded like a great idea and put it on our list. The next day, as I spoke to my wife Kathy, we discussed how wonderful it was that Hailey wanted to go there and what a great family experience this would be. We ended up canceling a planned trip to Europe and went to Best Friends instead (see attached story published by Best Friends in 2016). It turned out to be one of our favorite trips, and we saw firsthand the beautiful sanctuary and the wonderful work they do. We subsequently visited a few more times and have been involved in their organization. While Hailey always had an interest in animals and animal welfare, her experience at Best Friends was a driving motivator for her to go to veterinary school. During one of our visits, they gave her a tour of their animal hospital, and we met with some of the founders of the sanctuary. While there in 2018, we adopted a little kitten (Sage) after he melted in my son Justin’s hands and sold himself to us. After we brought Sage home, he was unfortunately diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and would not eat. Two different veterinarians indicated that he had an autoimmune disease with little chance of survival. We took him home and decided to give him tons of love and care. We sang to him, spent time with him, and prayed for him. Amazingly, he got better and started eating! He is now a happy, healthy, and mischievous cat.