Sit, stay, strut: Thousands raised to bring pets home

As Dorothy says in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” Home is a place where you feel comfortable and safe. Home is where your favorite people are. Home is what every pet deserves — and that’s what Strut Your Mutt is all about.

On Saturday, October 19, 2024, more than 1,200 people — and their Totos, too — gathered in Salt Lake City for Best Friends’ Strut Your Mutt fundraising walk and festival. Instead of the yellow brick road, walkers followed the sidewalk for a 1.4-mile loop around Liberty Park. Watching hundreds of pups prancing alongside their people was pure joy.

However, the dog walk itself is just one piece of Strut Your Mutt. This year, 14 animal shelters and rescue groups participated, and people raised funds for their favorite organizations. Assisting animal shelters and rescue groups with fundraising is one of the ways Best Friends supports them in the goal for all communities nationwide to reach no-kill in 2025. So far, this year’s event has raised about $52,000, including more than $36,000 for our partner organizations, and those numbers will grow as fundraising continues through the end of the month.

[A love letter to Strut Your Mutt]

“Some organizations don't have the means that larger ones do,” says Jackie McKay, one of the Best Friends staff who organized this year’s Strut Your Mutt. “They really rely on events like this to help them raise funds to make a difference and save these animals.”

Best Friends CEO Julie Castle kicked off the event, which was packed with activities for pet lovers of all ages. Besides the dog walk, Strut Your Mutt featured 58 vendors, live music from Nashville recording artist Kaleb Austin, a rock-climbing wall, a kids’ zone, a beer garden, and food trucks. The fan-favorite dog kissing contest was back, and so was the pet costume contest. This year’s first-place contestant dressed up as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (or should we say, the Good Girl of the North) and won a year’s supply of dog food from Blue Buffalo.

Several organizations also held on-site pet adoptions. By the end of the day, 12 dogs had clicked their paws three times and were headed home.

Every 90 seconds, a dog or cat is killed in America’s shelters simply because they don't have a safe place to call home — but achieving no-kill nationwide in 2025 is possible. Just like The Wizard of Oz characters, it’s going to take smarts, heart, and courage.

Strut Your Mutt started in Utah in the mid-1990s and over the years has taken place in 16 cities across the country. Tens of thousands of people have participated, and millions of dollars have been raised for the animals and Best Friends Network Partners. Today, Utah is making history once again. Earlier this year, Gov. Spencer Cox declared 2024 “No-Kill Shelter Year” in Utah, pledging to save every pet possible and reach no-kill status by the end of the year.

[Gov. Cox declares 2024 No-Kill Shelter Year in Utah]

A huge tail wag to the sponsors who made this year’s Strut Your Mutt possible, including KSL Classifieds with Deseret Media, Capital Broadcasting radio stations (Now 97.9 and The Wave), Fox 13, Blue Buffalo, Templin Family Brewery, and Ogden's Own Distillery.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 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.