Remembering Claire Ives
Claire Ives, one of the co-founders of Best Friends, was passionately dedicated to animal welfare and had a talent for bringing others into the cause.
Claire was born in New York City. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College and attended the University of Chicago studying anthropology, with a focus on pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, which, along with animals, became one of her lifelong passions. She was extremely smart.
Her work in animal welfare began in 1980 with the famous Grand Canyon burro rescue, where 580 burros (whose ancestors had been abandoned in the Grand Canyon by European settlers) were at risk of being shot. Claire ran the office for the operation, and the burros were helicoptered out of the canyon and sent to sanctuaries. It was an amazing accomplishment so early in the animal welfare movement. Claire also worked to end cockfighting in Arizona and pioneered low-cost spay/neuter programs.
When Best Friends Animal Sanctuary was being built in 1984, everything was in short supply — from cat beds to building supplies, paper towels, and trucks. Cash was even more scarce. So Claire sat in a trailer with a phone, a pile of Yellow Pages directories, an old-fashioned Rolodex, and a daily list of whatever was most urgent. She would call companies for donations — from California to Maine and Alaska to Florida — and, in the nicest possible way, never took “no” for an answer. Her persistence was legendary.
But the most impressive thing isn’t just that Claire got what was needed. Her passion for helping the animals resonated so much with the people she spoke to. When others would later call to thank people for their generosity, they would invariably wind up thanking Best Friends instead for the chance to be a part of our mission. Those relationships were an important part of building the organization and the movement. And, up until her retirement, Claire continued to share that gift and to mentor people both at Best Friends and at other organizations as to how she engaged other people to come along on this journey and save the lives of the animals she so dearly loved. She had a particular fondness for small dogs with special needs.
Claire was extremely chatty — she could really “talk your ear off.” And it was part of her charm. She cared about social issues and her friendships. She was blunt and curious and extremely generous. Claire is truly missed, but her work, her spirit, and her generosity will live on at Best Friends.
