Best Friends Animal Society

Saving lives in Salt Lake City

You can make a difference in the lives of animals in your community.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of loving dogs and cats were killed in shelters like the ones here in Utah just because they didn’t have a safe place to call home.

But you can change that. Best Friends Animal Society in Salt Lake City, is working collaboratively with animal rescue groups, city shelters and passionate individuals dedicated to making Utah a no-kill state.

With that goal in mind, we run a lifesaving center  in Salt Lake City, and lead NKUT (No-Kill Utah). Our lifesaving center is foster-based and takes in over 2,500 animals each year, including neonatal kittens, dogs and cats, and provides resources to the community.

Working together, we'll make Utah — and the entire country — no-kill by 2025.

Salt Lake City
- Best Friends Animal Society
Adopt a Pet Today
When you give a dog or cat a home, you’re saving a life.
Adopt a Pet Today
- Best Friends Animal Society
Foster a Pet Today
You can help save lives by fostering a pet today.
Foster a Pet Today

Adopt to help save lives

When you adopt a dog or cat who’s been patiently waiting for a place to call home, you’re not only saving a life.

You’re making space in the shelter for other homeless pets in Salt Lake City and giving them a chance to grow, thrive and find families of their very own. You might not feel like a hero, but to one animal, you’re the entire world. 

Find out more about pet adoption through Best Friends in Salt Lake City.

Group of smiling people sitting with a dog to celebrate its adoption

Volunteer to help save lives

Passionate, caring people like you who volunteer to help the animals are the heartbeat of our organization here in Salt Lake City.

Whether you volunteer locally or at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (located in Kanab, Utah), whether you help to transport pets across the country or help animals from your home via one of our national opportunities, you can make a tremendous difference in the lives of homeless pets. 

Become a Lifesaving Volunteer
Two curious adoptable kittens sitting with person in a Salt Lake City pet adoption center

Looking for help?

Spay/Neuter Services

Preventing unwanted litters

Spaying or neutering animals helps to reduce the number of pets entering shelters.
Person in scrubs holding a tiny puppy
Community Cat Programs

Helping cats in the community

Trap-neuter-return (TNR) and working cats adoptions are saving the lives of cats in Salt Lake City.
Person releasing a cat from a trap outdoors
Neonatal Kitten Care

Saving the smallest and most vulnerable

We keep kittens from entering shelters by finding foster homes for them.
Person bottle feeding a neonatal kitten in Salt Lake City kitten nursery
Pet Food Pantry

Keeping animals in their homes

The pet food pantry provides food to dogs and cats who need it most.
Dog sniffing orange food bowl
Events Icon

Events: make a difference for pets

Have fun and connect with fellow animal lovers through a variety of local and national events, big and small.

Adopt a Shelter Cat Month
Adopt a Shelter Cat Month
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Join us during the month of June for fee-waived cat and kitten adoptions thanks to Litter-Robot!
Learn More
Person with gloved hands bottle-feeding a neonatal kitten
Bottle baby foster and volunteer event
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Learn how you can be a true lifesaver by becoming a first responder, volunteer, or foster, as more kittens enter Utah's shelters.
Learn More

Give to save lives

Your contribution supports our lifesaving work and helps shelters nationwide achieve no-kill.

You’ll be helping to save the lives of homeless pets here in Salt Lake City and around the country when you make a gift to the animals.

Give to Save Lives
Smiling person holding a newly adopted cat in Salt Lake City

Recent tales from Salt Lake City

Looking for a little inspiration? Check out these pets and their stories of hope, love and resilience.

Porcini hte black and white cat sitting on a wood floor

Cat goes from skinny and itchy to healthy at home

Porcini looked and felt terrible, but with veterinary care and diligent TLC from a foster volunteer, he’s now living his best life.
Watch his journey
Video
Reba Schnyder and Elliot Tolkin holding Cricket the puppy, outside on a lawn

Lessons in patience from a puppy

After hip replacement surgery and TLC from foster caregivers, a puppy stands on her own four feet again.
Cricket makes herself at home
Video
Volunteers Russ and Elizabeth Duszak in front of a display at the Best Friends Pet Resource Center in Northwest Arkansas

Nearly 2 decades of volunteering with Best Friends

Russ Duszak, a commercial pilot, and his wife, Elizabeth, have volunteered in animal care, done transports, worked events, and fostered kittens for 17 years.
Helping Best Friends animals around the country
Feature
Person wearing a Best Friends sweatshirt while petting a dog

Shop to save lives

When you shop at the Best Friends store, the proceeds go right to work providing lifesaving care and companionship to animals in Salt Lake City, at the Sanctuary and around the country.
Shop Now

Contact us

2005 South 1100 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84106
801-574-2454
utahadoptions@bestfriends.org

Open noon to 6 p.m., seven days a week

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