Michele StuevenOn any given day, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah is the healing home for up to 1,600 dogs, cats, birds, bunnies, horses, pigs, parrots 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.
Since it opened on the site of the old Kanab Movie Ranch, the sanctuary has expanded to 3,700 acres of rolling hills where dinosaurs once roamed, and recently opened the Best Friends Roadhouse and Mercantile in town. It offers 40 rooms and suites where pets are not just welcome, but encouraged. No pets? No problem. With enough advance notice, you can give a local homeless dog or cat a night of company by hosting a sleepover at the roadhouse with a pet from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. All the people food on the property is vegan, and a stay includes two free all-you-can-eat vegan lunch buffet tickets for the property’s Angel Village Café.
Best Friends has left a growing paw print that includes 400 employees in Kanab and 6,000 volunteers who either live in town or volunteer while visiting and have outposts around the country including Texas, New York, Utah, and California.
“For the past 40 years, Best Friends Animal Society has been working toward their vision of a country where pets aren’t killed just because they don’t have a place to call home,” Brittany Thorn, Executive Director, Best Friends Animal Society Los Angeles tells L.A. Weekly. “L.A. has always been an area close to the organization’s heart. That’s why to save even more dog and cat Angelenos, we opened the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in West LA nearly eleven years ago. By having a home base here, we can positively impact our city’s dogs and cats to help make L.A. a no-kill city and save even more lives.”
Best Friends Adoption Center (Michele Stueven)
While L.A.’s housing crisis has helped fuel overcrowded animal shelters, Best Friends has a goal of taking the entire country to no-kill in 2025.
According to the animal welfare organization, to create a no-kill community, shelters in the Greater Los Angeles area need to implement practical solutions to increase lifesaving like creating robust foster programs, designating staff to be specifically trained and tasked with facilitating adoptions, and marketing animals in need to network them to potential homes.
California ranks second in shelter deaths in the country with more than 66,000 dogs and cats dying in shelters. In 2023, the state saw a dramatic uptick of 46%, or 22,000, dogs being killed. Cat life saving also saw a decrease last year, with upwards of 40,900 felines losing their lives because they found themselves temporarily homeless.
Nationally, 2.3 million dogs and cats were adopted in 2023, 345,000 fewer adoptions than in 2019, with a net result of 415,000 adoptable dogs and cats being killed in shelters last year. Best Friends data shows that pet adoption has been steadily declining over the last five years, with more people getting pets from breeders and pet stores. Simultaneously, shelter intakes have increased, leading to 415,000 adoptable dogs and cats being destroyed in shelters last year.
The sustainable home base in Utah, which is run entirely on donations, is a textbook example of how the no-kill concept thrives. Horse and bunny poop are recycled and clippings from the cafe are composted. Water comes from the river that runs through it and natural springs. They have their own water truck and cutter truck onsite to keep lightning strikes contained as well as their own mechanics shop. A full-time staff of veterinarians is on site.
The horses end up at the sanctuary mostly due to neglect and abandonment or have been taken away from people through court cases. They have a covered equestrian center with fans and sprinklers to keep the dust down and have training sessions with them – how to ride with a saddle and get in and out of horse trailers. They have burros, miniature horses, and mules that have been retired from the Grand Canyon. Some horses are rideable and others aren’t, the pasture pals. There’s a blind pasture for those with vision problems.
The Cat House at Best Friends Utah (Michele Stueven)
There’s the Cat World facility (because cats rule the world) and Dog Town. Every building in cats is for specific needs like those that have come from feral colonies, and are promptly spayed and neutered. Not the ones to come inside and snuggle, these cats are used for pest control. There are separate buildings for the snufflers. These felines are all available for adoption or just to pet and visit daily, especially during Black Cat Month. There’s a female leukemia-positive building and cat walking paths. There are about 700 cats at a time at cat headquarters and about 400 dogs at a time in Dog Town. Flees? No problem, the top of the sanctuary is at an elevation where they don’t exist.
After football player Michael Vick was convicted of running an illegal dog fighting ring in the Bad Newz dog fighting investigation, Best Friends took 22 of the most difficult cases, mainly pit bull terriers. Many of them were rehabilitated and adopted. There were two dogs that by court order could not be adopted because of their street value – the grand champion and breeder of grand champions. The judge feared they’d be stolen and sent back into the ring. The dogs were housed in a separate facility, protected by special security to ensure their safety and rehabilitation.
Those dogs have since passed on and have been buried in the sanctuary’s massive Angel’s Outlook memorial garden. The structure currently houses dogs with behavioral issues, where trainers spend a lot of time. There are also single-dog areas for those who can’t be around others and are at the most risk of not being adopted. They have a rolodex on inhabitants for the behavior trainers and video cameras studying the animals to find out what makes them tick. There’s the old friends section for senior dogs who need a quieter lifestyle, many of whom have outlived their owners, and you can bring your leashed dog to the public meditation labyrinth. The fitness center provides coconut oil massages and houses a hydro treadmill for dogs and cats for physical therapy and weight loss that fills up from the bottom. It’s not unusual to see a cat in a life jacket.
Entrance and tours of the sanctuary are free (Michele Stueven)
Anything that comes in from the wild gets fixed and released. Sometimes they are adoptable, others live out their lives at the sanctuary like the four-year-old bald python named Boba. Some of the abandoned have been bred as pets and have never been outside. The parrot garden houses everything from parakeets to large macaws. There’s an outdoor aviary. Rabbits get walked in strollers.
The local wild animals that call the property home are large birds like raptors, hawks, condors, golden and bald eagles. The number one cause of death for the big birds is lead poisoning that originates from hunting. There’s lead in the bullets, which explode upon impact and go into the animal’s organs. Hunters usually gut the game on the spot, leaving the organs behind, which in turn the birds feed on, ingesting the lead.
There are several memorial gardens, and the one near the bottom is full. All current placements and burials are on top of the hill at Angel’s Overlook. When an animal passes, it’s full body placement, including the horses. There’s no crematorium on the property. A blessing is done every month, like a shaman from the local Paiute nation who did the blessing in his native language. Angel’s Overlook is on top and goes on for miles, with a display of trinkets and lights and statues left behind by loved ones. For a small donation, anyone from the public can place their animals there as well. Gratitude Garden is in honor of large donations made towards No Kill 2025, which includes names like Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, and the Walton (Walmart) family. Four staff members’ sole job is to take care of the cemeteries.
Founded by 10 dedicated animal activists including Francis Battista, considered to be one of the foremost thought leaders in animal welfare, his wife Silva, and son Judah, the sanctuary in Utah offers free entrance and tours to the public. There are also plenty of non-animal activities. Take a hike to Turtle Rock, explore the ancient Anasazi cave dwellings and petroglyphs, or just take in a plant-based meal at the cafe that overlooks the canyon. Cottages are available for rental and animal volunteer opportunities abound.
To contribute to No-Kill 2025, donate here.
One of the original dwellings, built by the founders from a Sears and Roebuck catalog kit (Michele Stueven)
Best Friends Welcome Center (Michele Stueven)
Inside the Best Friends Roadhouse (Michele Stueven)