When we work together, we save more lives

No matter where you are in your animal welfare journey, you deserve opportunities to grow and thrive.

From professional development courses to conferences and more, we’re with you every step of the way. Whatever your experience or skill level, our resources and programs will give you the chance to grow, lead, and save more lives.

Together, we can build a bright future for pets and the people who love them.

The Best Friends Network is your support system

Network partners gain access to grants, resources, exclusive challenges, and a dedicated support team.

The Best Friends Network brings together thousands of shelters, rescue groups, spay/neuter organizations, and other animal welfare partners from across all 50 states — all united by one common goal: saving the lives of dogs and cats.

When you become a network partner, you gain access to more than $2.4 million in grant funding, direct support from dedicated regional teams, a wide range of tools and resources tailored to your shelter’s needs, and the opportunity to connect with fellow organizations striving toward the same lifesaving goals.

Better yet? Network partners consistently achieve higher save rates than non-network partners. More collaboration equals more lives saved.

Find Your Network Today

Best Friends National Conference

The Best Friends National Conference brings together passionate animal welfare leaders and volunteers from across the country to learn, connect, and share practical tools that help save more dogs and cats.

The Best Friends National Conference is an event where animal advocates from across the country come together for encouragement, camaraderie, and practical advice from some of the field’s leading experts in lifesaving strategies.

The next Best Friends National Conference will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 7-9, 2026. Attendees can choose from a wide range of sessions addressing the latest topics in achieving or maintaining no-kill, data-driven lifesaving tactics, and much more. And all network partners receive a discounted registration.

Learn More about the Conference

Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned leader, you’ll leave with the knowledge and support to save more lives in your community.

Turn your passion into a profession

Our flexible professional development courses help you to strengthen your expertise and save more lives.

Your path in animal welfare deserves support with every step. That’s why Best Friends Animal Society has partnered with Southern Utah University (SUU) to offer flexible online programs, degrees, and professional certifications, no matter where you are in your career journey.

Learn from a variety of leading animal experts, make valuable connections with other professionals in the industry, and gain the skills you need to grow your career. By the end of the program, you’ll be ready to make an even greater impact for the pets and people who need you most.

Explore our Learning Opportunities

Work for Best Friends Animal Society

Passionate about helping animals? Then let’s work together. Explore all the professional opportunities at Best Friends.

At Best Friends, we believe that every living being matters — including you. That’s why we’re dedicated to creating a kinder world for all living things and creating a workplace culture that embraces diversity and inclusion.

So whether you’re skilled in accounting or animal care, strategy or social media, technology or pet training, if you believe in the power of kindness, there’s a career for you here.

Learn More About Careers

Not sure how to get started? More than 30% of Best Friends staff started as volunteers, so volunteering at one of our many locations is one of the best ways to gain hands-on experience and make valuable connections. We also offer internship opportunities to gain professional experience, and we're proud to offer an externship program for vet techs and veterinary students to build your career in animal welfare.

Increase your organization’s lifesaving capabilities with Shelter Pet Data Alliance

With our free data analysis tool, you can navigate through intakes and outcomes, analyze trends, and turn your data into real-world solutions that address your largest lifesaving barriers.

Created by Best Friends, Shelter Pet Data Alliance gives organizations a free and automated platform to help inform daily decisions and provide a data-driven picture of the lifesaving progress we’re making across the country.

Compare your organization’s data side by side with more than 8,000 shelters and rescue organizations, and analyze comparisons of your intake and outcome data with local and national trends. With Shelter Pet Data Alliance, streamlining your daily decision-making has never been easier, and that’s a win for both pets and people.

Learn More About Shelter Pet Data Alliance

Internship opportunities

Pursue your passion and take your first step toward a career in animal welfare.

Love animals but not sure how you can turn your passion into a viable career? Take your first steps toward a meaningful career in animal welfare while making a real difference for pets who need you with an internship.

In this hands-on internship, you’ll work side by side with Best Friends team members — many of whom began as interns themselves — to build skills, gain experience, and explore a variety of career pathways in animal services. If you’re ready to start making a direct difference in the lives of dogs and cats, this is the perfect place to start.

Learn About Internships

We also offer an externship program for vet techs and veterinary students to build your career in animal welfare.

Press and media

Want to feature Best Friends in a story or segment? We’d love to hear from you.

As a leader in ending the killing of dogs and cats in our nation’s shelters, we run the largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals in the U.S., and we maintain the most comprehensive and reliable dataset in animal welfare.

Visit Our Media Center

Let’s be friends!

Connect with us on social media to stay in the loop about the lifesaving progress we’re making together. 

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization dedicated to saving the lives of dogs and cats in America's shelters and making the entire country no-kill. Founded in 1984, Best Friends runs lifesaving facilities and programs nationwide in partnership with more than 6,000 shelters and rescue organizations. From our headquarters in Kanab, Utah, we also operate the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary — a destination that brings our mission to life for thousands of visitors each year.

We maintain the most comprehensive animal sheltering data in the country and make it accessible to the public — empowering communities with critical insights into the needs of their local shelters and how they can help. We believe every dog and cat deserves a home. And we believe that, by working together, we can Save Them All®.