Best Friends Animal Society Speaks with Women Legislators from Across the Country

Kanab, UT – Best Friends Animal Society and CEO, Julie Castle, attended the National Foundation for Women Legislators annual meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, speaking to women legislators from across the country about the important role pets play in our homes and communities, and steps they can take to help their shelters end the killing of adoptable animals

“It was an honor to be in the room with so many inspiring women from across the country who are the true change makers in their communities,” said Julie Castle, Best Friends Animal Society CEO. “In order to bring our country to no-kill by 2025 we need our state legislators involved. It was incredible to see the eagerness to talk about animal welfare challenges and how we can best fix those problems together to save more lives.”

As of last year, 48% of the nation's shelters are now no-kill and the number of healthy or treatable pets dying in shelters was down to 347,000. But that is still too many. Castle emphasized the need for more statewide support of programs that save cats, in particular community cats. Currently, cats are dying at a rate twice as high as dogs and in order to get to no-kill we need to do better. By giving the public and our local leaders more knowledge on healthy and effective community cat programs we can start to see real progress and save more lives.

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is the leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters by 2025. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to around 347,000. Best Friends runs lifesaving programs all across the country, as well as the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary. Working collaboratively with a network of more than 3,300 animal welfare and shelter partners, and community members nationwide, Best Friends is working to Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.