Best Friends Animal Society Hires Brent Toellner as Regional Director, Great Plains and South Central Regions

Media Contact
Eric Rayvid : 917-861-8290 or ericr@bestfriends.org

Best Friends Animal Society announced today that Brent Toellner has been hired as Regional Director for the Great Plains and South Central Regions.

In his new role, Toellner will oversee Best Friends' Regional programming in the South Central and Great Plains areas. He will focus on community analysis, no kill program consulting and coalition building in key communities that will enable Best Friends to aid the region in achieving no-kill status. 

Toellner is a co-founder of the KC Pet Project an organization that took over operations of the city of Kansas City's shelter in 2012. Under municipal leadership, the shelter saved approximately 35% of the animals that entered the shelter. Within six months, KC Pet Project was saving more than 90% of the animals at the shelter and has sustained that success by saving more than 94% of the 10,000 pets that will enter their shelter in 2016. 

"We are very excited to welcome Brent to Best Friends," said CEO Gregory Castle. "He has a storied history in animal welfare and brings a lot of important knowledge about this region to the organization. We look forward to expanding the reach of our mission to Save Them All by working together with existing shelters and rescues in the area."

Brent is an alumnus of the University of Missouri and holds a master's degree from the University of Kansas. He has 20 years of professional experience in marketing and advertising. Brent and his wife Michelle share their Kansas City home with 3 dogs and 3 cats, all rescues.

 

Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is the only national animal welfare organization dedicated exclusively to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters. A leader in the no-kill movement, Best Friends runs the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals, adoption centers and spay and neuter facilities in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City as well as lifesaving programs in partnership with more than 1,600 rescue groups and shelters across the country. Since its founding in 1984, Best Friends has helped reduce the number of animals killed in American shelters from 17 million per year to an estimated 4 million. By continuing to build effective initiatives that reduce the number of animals entering shelters and increase the number who find homes, Best Friends and its nationwide network of members and partners are working to Save Them All®.

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About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization dedicated to saving the lives of dogs and cats in America's shelters and making the entire country no-kill. Founded in 1984, Best Friends runs lifesaving facilities and programs nationwide in partnership with more than 5,000 shelters and rescue organizations. From our headquarters in Kanab, Utah, we also operate the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary — a destination that brings our mission to life for thousands of visitors each year. We maintain the most comprehensive animal sheltering data in the country and make it accessible to the public — empowering communities with critical insights into the needs of their local shelters and how they can help. We believe every dog and cat deserves a home. And we believe that, by working together, we can Save Them All®.