Saving lives: Around the country

Additionally, our lifesaving programs and strategies are used in shelters and rescue groups nationwide. Your support fuels this lifesaving work in every corner of the country, wherever and whenever animals need a helping hand.

Supporting pets and people on the Navajo Nation

On the Navajo Nation, which is roughly the size of West Virginia, shelters and veterinary clinics are few and far between. Because many families lack transportation, pets often go without basic veterinary care, such as vaccinations and spay and neuter surgeries. The Nation’s five shelters are flooded, yet the number of pets in need keeps growing. 

Best Friends and the Navajo Nation are working together, and with other partners, to slow the flow of cats and dogs into the shelters. 

In 2022, a Best Friends grant helped network partners Soul Dog Rescue and Nuzzles & Co. fix up and reopen an animal shelter and clinic in Kayenta, Arizona. This new center is helping more people care for their pets and keep them at home. 

Bringing more services to the Nation is a long-term solution. But change doesn’t happen overnight, and lives must be saved now. So Best Friends transports pets (in 2022, nearly 2,300 dogs and cats) from the Navajo Nation to the Sanctuary, other Best Friends locations, and rescue groups in various communities.

Safe from the storm

Merritt and his feline friends were directly in the path of Hurricane Ian as it sped toward Florida in September. But then he left Jacksonville Humane Society with nine other cats on a Best Friends transport van. They later arrived safely at Paws and Claws Rescue in Chicago. From there, they went to foster homes before being adopted. 

Merritt’s move came as Best Friends and our network partners worked together to get as many animals as possible out of Ian’s reach. Because of you, Best Friends helped 586 animals during Hurricane Ian through transport, foster placement, and adoption.