Tuesday, January 14, 2025: We are continuing to pull adoptable dogs and cats from shelters to provide space for displaced animals to go until they are reunited with their families. So, a second Wings of Rescue transport flight is scheduled from Los Angeles to Utah tomorrow.

Additionally, Los Angeles Animal Services is setting up three unification centers to help reunite people with their lost pets. Best Friends will be supporting this effort by providing supplies from our pet pantries, which remain open to provide everyday pet supplies to help keep families together. Details about these centers is still to come and will be shared on our social media channels.

Monday, January 13, 2025: Angelinos are truly stepping up to help pets in need, despite continuing wildfires. Since January 9, Best Friends has placed 139 cats and dogs into temporary foster homes. For perspective, this is out of a total of 266 animals in our entire Los Angeles foster program.

Best Friends continues to work closely with shelters impacted by the fires in Los Angeles to determine which pets can be moved out of the immediate area. By taking those pets who are in need of permanent homes into our care, space opens in the L.A. shelters so they may focus on finding temporary homes for lost and displaced pets until they can be reunited with their families.

Sunday, January 12, 2025: Yesterday’s transport flight was a resounding success, bringing 58 cats and 26 dogs from Los Angeles to Kanab, Utah.  Today, we’re pulling in dozens more animals from Pasadena Humane and LA Animal Services so they have room to provide a safe place to hold pets displaced by the fires.

We've also sent animals to Salt Lake City to our Lifesaving Center, where the community is stepping up in a big way to help. Yesterday the center took in 31 dogs, and 51 animals left, including 34 who were adopted.

Additionally, more than 300 people have raised their hands in the last 24 hours to volunteer, many local to California. Some have already started vital cleaning assistance at the Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles, freeing up staff to focus on lifesaving transports.

Saturday, January 11, 2025: The Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles took in 42 dogs and 113 cats from Los Angeles municipal shelters yesterday. Once again, Angelinos stepped up and there was a massive turnout to help adopt and foster those incoming animals, with a remarkable 32 dogs and 38 cats going into foster homes. Additionally, we have coordinated a flight with our partners at Wings of Rescue to transport cats and dogs to Utah this afternoon.

To  connect families willing to foster pets and families that need to temporarily relinquish their pets, Best Friends has launched a special Facebook group. Home-to-home fostering helps reduce shelter overcrowding and allows pets to stay in a nurturing home setting rather than a kennel. This is essential so shelters can reserve space for incoming animals that need need urgent care and have nowhere else to go.

So much has been happening at the Pet Adoption center in the last few days, assistance is needed with cleaning the facility and distributing pet supplies to shelters and evacuation sites. If you are interested in helping volunteer, please complete this form.

Friday, January 10, 2025: The Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles is now open to the community for people who wish to adopt or short- or long-term foster a dog or cat or need to use our pet pantry for everyday supplies such as food, litter, collars, leashes, etc. to help keep families together. A second pet pantry has opened at the Best Friends Clinic at 17411 Chatsworth St, Suite #100 in Granada Hills. Both are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with no appointment needed.

Yesterday, 33 cats and dogs from our Los Adoption Pet Adoption Center were transported our Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.

Additionally, Best Friends is working with Wings of Rescue to conduct a pet transport flight from Burbank to Kanab tomorrow. From there the cats and dogs will go to the Sanctuary or continue on to Salt Lake City and into temporary foster homes or be adopted.

Thursday, January 9, 2025: Responding to a plea from the city of Pasadena, Best Friends took in 12 cats and five dogs to help them free up space for more animals needing care in their city. In addition to the animals from Pasadena, another 16 from the Los Angeles Adoption Center were transported to Best Friends' Sanctuary in Utah to find refuge from the fires.

To encourage further lifesaving collaboration, Best Friends is incentivizing animal organizations to help as many dogs and cats in impacted shelters as possible. For every dog or cat pulled from an impacted shelter, Best Friends will grant $250 to defray the cost of the animal’s care.

In the face of managing their own personal crisis, Angelinos really showed up for pets in need. Yesterday alone, 40 dogs and cats were fostered and another 11 were adopted into permanent homes from our Pet Adoption Center.

To ensure the safety of our staff and pets in our care, the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles remains closed to the public until further notice.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025: The devastating wildfires currently impacting California have forced hundreds of thousands of individuals to evacuate, and many are without power.

Our team in Los Angeles remains on-site and has not yet received evacuation orders. They are diligently caring for our adoptable pets while closely monitoring the evolving situation. The safety of our animals and staff is our utmost priority, and the team is prepared to act swiftly should circumstances require.

We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support and kind messages from those concerned about the well-being of our pets and staff.

Los Angeles is seeing unprecedented wildfires in residential areas that are dangerously close to Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in West Los Angeles.  At this time, Best Friends Staff and the animals in our care at our Lifesaving center in Los Angeles are safe from the nearby wildfires.

Our team is monitoring the situation closely and while we have not been given the order to evacuate, we are ready to do so if needed.  Our priority is the safety and well-being of our animals and team members.

For the first time in recent memory, Best Friends is in the unique situation to be offering help and support to other local animal welfare organizations while also working to ensure the safety of our own pets and staff in our Pet Adoption Center.

We are in communication with our partners in Los Angeles and are assessing where we can help. 

We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support and kind messages from those concerned about the well-being of our pets and staff. Follow our social channels for updates not only about what Best Friends is doing, but how we’re helping our partners navigate this situation.

Visit Best Friends’ Facebook page and Instagram page for updates and to follow our work on the ground. Working with our local partners, we are committed to providing support and safety to the animals in the Los Angeles wildfires.