Smiling person sitting down on a couch while holding a small dog

Bring love home by adopting a pet near you

When you adopt a homeless pet, you’re not only adding a loyal and loving companion to your family, but you’re also helping to save lives. 

This year, roughly 7 million homes in America are planning to add a pet to their family. 

By adopting a pet from a shelter or rescue group, you’re saving the life of a homeless pet while also making space in a shelter for another pet to be rescued. And that’s huge.

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.

Dog Cat

Find adoptable dogs and cats where you live  

Whether you adopt from a Best Friends location or one of the many shelters and rescue groups around the country, you’ll be helping to save lives — and you’ll bring love home. 

Find an animal shelter or rescue group near you today:
Person relaxing on the floor in a home with a dog

Do you believe every animal deserves a place to call home?  

Here at Best Friends, we believe that every dog and cat deserves love, safety, and a home.  

I Agree

What you can do to save the lives of homeless pets  

There are so many ways you can provide safe homes for dogs and cats in your community, and we'll show you how. 

See how you can save animals 

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Pets who found their way home 

Check out these pets and their stories of hope, love, and resilience.

Black, white and tan dog with his tongue out, outside on grass

Pet adoptions skyrocket at Indiana shelter

Jeffersonville Animal Shelter celebrates the first no-kill month in its history.
Helping animals get home faster
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Volunteers Rich and Linda Yates with a dog beside some crates

Volunteers hit the road to help animals in need

Rich and Linda Yates combine road trips with rescue work, lending their hands — and sometimes their backseat — to help the animals.
Now they're steady and spirited fixtures in the Best Friends family
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Dog gets some love at the Humane Society of South Coastal Georgia

No-kill animal shelters: The new normal in America

From a large shelter in Las Vegas to a smaller one in rural Georgia, U.S. animal shelters are steadily moving toward no-kill.
Steady progress saves more lives
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Indy the cat playing with a colorful wand toy

Faces of No-Kill: Mighty kitten's miraculous recovery

Indy fell into a coma when she was just a tiny kitten, but swift action saved her life.
She continues to make steady progress
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Rio and Mike the dogs outside on some steps

A road trip detour that changed a dog’s life

A cross-country trip and spontaneous visit to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary led to a life-changing moment for a very good dog named Rio.
Now Rio has blossomed
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Renee Skipper holding a cat in front of a kennel

How a journey home to Alabama saved dogs and cats

When Lisa Barrett returned to her hometown on assignment for Best Friends, she proved that when it comes to saving pets’ lives, yes, you can go home again.
Great things happening at Dothan Animal Shelter
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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.