From Times Square with love

Love is what turns a house into a home. And no matter where you live, adopting a pet gives both you and them the life-affirming feeling of a safe, cozy home. On an April day in New York City’s Times Square, Best Friends launched a new national campaign called Bring Love Home with a pop-up, interactive event to celebrate all things home (with pets).

Right in the hustle and bustle of New York City, we created a cozy living room and a backyard complete with adoptable dogs to show the world what it feels like to bring love home.

And we weren’t the only ones. Hundreds of people stopped by to share their stories, photos, and videos of their pets at home for the #BringLoveHome contest, vying for a chance to be part of a national pet adoption ad. It was a beautiful day, complete with some happy surprises.

The purpose behind the event and the call to “bring love home” is to raise awareness that every 90 seconds a dog or cat is killed in U.S. animal shelters just because they don’t have a safe place to call home. But if just 6% more people of the 7 million who will add a pet to their home this year chose to adopt instead of buy their next pet, our country would be no-kill.

It’s no secret that if you bring puppies, you’ll draw a crowd, and that’s exactly what happened. There were 17 adoptable puppies and dogs from the Best Friends Lifesaving Center in New York City on-site throughout the day. Their velvet-soft ears, puppy kisses, and rough-and-tumble play sessions not only drew people in just for a quick pet fix, but by the time the event ended, every single one of them had been adopted.

It was a busy day in the media with the call to adopt pets reaching viewers from coast to coast. There was coverage from Fox & Friends, amNew York, and Univision’s El Gordo y La Flaca and Despierta America.

Michael Cyril Creighton from Hulu's Only Murders in the Building, Will Estes from CBS' Blue Bloods, and Georgina Pazcoguin aka "The Rogue Ballerina" all stopped by to lend their support, and other famous friends of the animals shared the messages with their fans on social media.

And then there were the visits from some other familiar faces: people who have adopted their pets from Best Friends. One person who came by shared that they adopted their cat from Best Friends six years ago and that their kitty means everything to their son who has autism. Marathon runner Ron Romano visited with Nacho, the pup he adopted from Best Friends, who is now a solid running buddy.

A comfy couch. A patch of green grass. A place where you’re safe and loved. There's no place like home. You can help bring love home when you adopt, donate, or spread the word that pets in shelters belong at home.

Special thanks to Blue Buffalo and Walmart, which covered adoption fees, and sponsors Ruggable, Fresh Step, Acana, and Fetch Pet Insurance.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill by 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.