Small grey and black dog smiling

Adopt a pet and save a life

You can save the life of a dog or cat by choosing to adopt. In 2024, 425,000 cats and dogs were killed in this country’s shelters, simply because they didn’t have a safe place to call home.


We know millions of households will add a pet to their family this year. If just 1 in 17 more of those families chose to adopt a pet from a shelter, we could reach no-kill nationwide.

So when you adopt from a Best Friends location, a network partner or one of the many shelters and rescue groups around the country, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, you’re helping to save lives.

Smiling person giving a dog an ice cream cone at the Best Friends Pet Resource Center in Bentonville Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas: Bring home your new best friend

When you adopt a homeless pet, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, you’re making room in shelters and helping to save lives.
Smiling person sitting in front of Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Salt Lake City with a dog

Salt Lake City: Bring home your new best friend

When you adopt a homeless pet, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, you’re making room in shelters and helping to save lives.
Smiling person outside with a dog in Houston, Texas
Photo courtesy of Erica Danger

Houston: Bring home your new best friend

When you adopt a homeless pet, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, you’re making room in shelters and helping to save lives.
Smiling person holding a dog outside of the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Bring home your new best friend

When you adopt a homeless pet, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, you’re making room in shelters and helping to save lives.
Smiling person sitting in a park in New York City with a dog

New York City: Bring home your new best friend

When you adopt a homeless pet, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, you’re making room in shelters and helping to save lives.
Superman cat and dog
Be a hero for homeless pets
To celebrate SUPERMAN in theaters July 11, Warner Bros. Discovery is covering all pet adoption fees 7/1 to 7/10 at Best Friends lifesaving centers across the country and PAWS Atlanta.
Best Friends Animal Society logo mark

Adopt a pet from Best Friends

In addition to running our animal sanctuary in Kanab and partnering with thousands of shelters and rescue groups, Best Friends operates its own lifesaving centers around the country.

Adopt a pet from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

On any given day, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, located in Kanab, Utah, is home to up to 1,600 animals, including dogs, cats, horses, birds, rabbits, pigs and others. Many of the animals arrive needing a little extra care and healing before they’re ready to join a family of their own.

When you adopt a furry (or feathered) friend from the Sanctuary, you’re not only changing that pet’s life, you’re helping to Save Them All.

 

Find a Pet Dog Tag GraphicSearch for a Sanctuary animal

Not sure which animal or what kind might be the perfect fit for you? Please fill out an interest form for a dog or cat and we’ll point you in the right direction.

 

 

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All the benefits of adopting a pet from Best Friends

When you adopt an animal from Best Friends, sharing your life with an amazing new companion is just the beginning. As a new adopter, you become part of an extraordinary community of people devoted to their own pets — and to saving the lives of others. Indeed, you become part of the Best Friends family. 

We’re with you every step of the way to provide guidance and answer questions as your pet adjusts to being in a new home. 
 

Dog Cat

More places to find your bff

Best Friends is partnering with these communities throughout the country to help save their homeless pets, and you can be a part of that lifesaving when you raise your hand to adopt.

Help your local animal shelter or rescue group 

At Best Friends, our goal is to get more dogs and cats out of shelters and into homes and make every shelter in America no-kill. Each and every one of these shelters needs caring people like you to adopt, foster, donate, volunteer, and advocate to help save the lives of pets in your community. 

Find an animal shelter or rescue group near you today:
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Winthrop, ME
P.A.L.S. is a no-kill cat shelter that began in 1980 as a non-profit, charitable organization. No public funds support this organization. P.A.L.S. is supported by memberships, fund-raising, memorial gifts, donations, and bequests. Your support is greatly needed!The shelter's living space consists of several rooms where the cats roam freely and have access to enclosed outdoor pens. Read moreRead less
Olympia, WA

To foster an environment of respect, responsibility, and compassion for all animals through learning, legislation, and leadership.

Tahlequah, OK

No description available

Colville, WA

The Colville Valley Animal Sanctuary is determined to inspire the public to support the humane treatment of animals and to transform the lives of companion animals in need.

Germantown, TN

The Germantown Animal Shelter is a municipal facility, striving to find homes for homeless dogs and cats. The shelter also houses stray dogs and cats until they are reunited with their owners. Animal control services are provided for the city of Germantown, including stray/injured animal pick-up.

Columbia, MO
Columbia Second Chance rescues and rehomes between 600 - 700 dogs and cats per year throughout central Missouri. We rescue from both high kill shelters and from the public. We house cats in foster homes and in our facility. We depend solely on foster homes to house our dogs. We provide medical care, food and supplies to our foster homes while they love and nurture them until adoption. Read moreRead less
Warrenton, MO
NTTSARS is a 501c3 no kill animal shelter and sanctuary. We are committed to providing a better life for all animals in our community and surrounding communities through the rescue and rehoming of abandoned, neglected or abused animals. Educating and offering options for current pet owners to keep their beloved pets when they have fallen on hard times. We offer community awareness and low cost services. Read moreRead less
Harrison, AR
The mission of Ozark Humane Society is to rescue and provide a temporary home for the abandoned and homeless dogs and cats in the area. Our goal is to save these animals by providing a safe haven until each can be matched with an appropriate and welcoming forever home. We are also working to better educate the community to the benefits of spaying and neutering their dogs and cats for better health and population control. Read moreRead less
Attleboro, MA

We are an all-volunteer organization that dedicates our time to the homeless Cats and Dogs in Attleboro. We are committed to nurturing and promoting the animal-human bond and creating a community where our relationship with companion animals is guided by compassion.

Glenfield, NY
Our mission is to provide care, comfort and kindness to companion animals without homes. The LCHS works towards ending unwanted and abandoned animals through spay/neuter. We strive to ensure the animals in our care are adopted into loving, forever homes by promoting compassionate, responsible pet ownership. Read moreRead less
Asheville, NC
Asheville Humane Society is about hope, not heartache. As Buncombe County's critical safety net since 1984, we are always here to save and protect every animal. We have mastered the art of saving lives within our walls and now we are going even further, helping our community's pets and their people thrive together. We are going beyond a no-kill community to ensure that each animal has the quality of life they deserve a life worth living. Read moreRead less
Menands, NY
To enrich the lives of animals and the people who love them. In addition to providing shelter and care for stray, abused and unwanted animals, we provide an ever-increasing array of services for animals and those who care for them. This includes low-cost spay/neuter and wellness services, vaccination and microchip clinics, stray housing for municipalities, dog training, a pet food pantry and humane education programming for all ages. Read moreRead less
Rockdale, TX

We Are Their Voice
Through adoption and education, RAS promotes humane treatment and protection for those with no voice of their own. We provide quality, compassionate care with love for all animals. RAS encourages the community to value animals, treating them with empathy, kindness and respect.

Grinnell, IA

PALS' mission is to provide care, shelter, and permanent placement for companion animals, to support the spaying and neutering of all pets to prevent overpopulation, and to educate our communities on the humane treatment of animals.

Hickory Creek, TX
We strive to maintain a low-kill shelter. The employees and volunteers are dedicated to the welfare of animals and proud to be _The Little Shelter with a Big Heart._ It is our goal to continually review and evaluate animal protection and control issues, needs, services and facilities for the Town of Hickory Creek. Read moreRead less
Riverwoods, IL
Our mission is clear: To take responsibility for each and every orphaned, abandoned, abused or neglected dog and cat which reaches our doors; to take them in and shelter them; to provide the best medical and physical care possible for them; to nurture them back to health if need be; and finally to place them into warm, loving, adoptive homes where they can enjoy the lives they deserve. Read moreRead less
San Antonio, TX
A grassroots effort, San Antonio Pets Alive's (SAPA!) mission is to save EVERY adoptable dog and cat in danger of euthanasia at the City Shelter through adoption, foster care, baby bottle-feeding, the provision of alternative to pet surrender, and the involvement of citizens and businesses in order to make San Antonio a No Kill City! Read moreRead less
Baltimore, MD
In recognizing the need to have a city animal shelter that serves as a true resource for the people and animals of Baltimore, the city has reorganized its animal shelter into a 501(c)(3) non-profit and renamed it the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS.) In addition to receiving funding from Baltimore City, BARCS now has the critical ability to raise private funding from the community and enhance its volunteer efforts. Read moreRead less
Scotia, NY

The Animal Protective Foundation promotes and protects the human-animal bond by providing resources to our community and humane care to companion animals.

Valley View, OH

Provide humane canine care and control, reunite lost pets and owners and ensure the safety and welfare of the community and animals through appropriate law enforcement and education.

Spooner, WI
The Washburn County Area Humane Society's mission is to provide humane care and treatment for animals needing protection in Washburn County, Wisconsin; to return lost animals to their owners or seek suitable homes for animals without owners; to provide a caring and healthy environment until animals are homed; to prevent cruelty to animals; and to extend humane education to the community. Read moreRead less
Smiling person holding a small dog in their arms while sitting outside

Not sure you're ready to adopt a pet? Try fostering.

Fostering a homeless pet is a short-term commitment with long-term impact. By opening your home to a dog or cat for even a few days, you can save lives.  

Happily ever afters

Feel all the feels with these stories of hope and healing.
Best Friends Animal Society logo mark

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends is working to end the killing of dogs and cats in U.S. shelters in part by getting more pets out of shelters and into loving homes.

We’ve come a long way since the first known city reached no-kill in 1994, and now we’re closer than ever to making the entire country no-kill. Today, roughly 2,500 shelters are no-kill throughout the U.S. — and 700 more are just 100 pets or fewer away from reaching that milestone.

Best Friends is committed to working with passionate people like you to save homeless pets through adoption, volunteering, fostering, and advocacy. In addition to our lifesaving centers around the U.S, we also founded and run the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals.

Working together, we can save homeless pets in our communities and secure a better future for our best friends. Together, we will bring the whole country to no-kill.