Introduction
The Story
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A Few Personal Stories
Francis
Faith
Anne
Silva
Introduction
These pages describe some of the earlier years of a few of us who were the founders of Best Friends.
Today, there are less than a dozen of us – out of a staff of about 250 – who are actively involved in the work of Best Friends.
But we first met each other more than 30 years ago, when most of us were still in our teens in London, England, in the 1960s.
Even more so than in the United States, England was in upheaval in the Sixties. And people everywhere were looking for a better way of life
As a group of about 25 friends at that time, we set out on a quest that would lead us to a Mayan ruin in Mexico's Yucatan, and then all across Britain, Europe, and the United States, starting several different spiritually-oriented organizations, and then moving on from each of them. It was all part of a search to find our true calling in life.
And while the animals were a big part of our lives from the very beginning, it would be many years before some of us would come back together again to start the work of what is now Best Friends Animal Society.
It’s a story – a whole series of stories – that could fill a book. (And perhaps one day, when we’re not so busy rescuing animals, we’ll write that book . . .)
But for now, here’s a brief sketch of how we got from that remarkable beginning at a ruin called Xtul to the start of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in 1986.