Best Friends Animal Society Leaves Shelters in Shambles
- Cities that partnered with Best Friends Animal Society have faced public backlash and costly lawsuits.
- Best Friends Animal Society pushes for policies that have resulted in deadly fights, disease outbreaks, animals starving to death in kennels, and fatal attacks on residents.
Best Friends Animal Society (Best Friends) has influenced or even taken over operations at animal shelters across the country, including publicly funded facilities, in what it calls an “embed program.” This program involves placing Best Friends staff members in leadership positions in order to implement its “no-kill” policies. But what happens when shelters hand Best Friends the keys?
The information below shows what a “partnership” with the group really means for animals and communities. From dogs and cats sent to self-proclaimed and unregulated “rescues” to deadly fights, disease outbreaks, animals starving to death in kennels, and more, here’s a look at some of the disastrous—and often deadly—results of the policies Best Friends pushes.
Best Friends Animal Society has for years misled the public, promising Americans a “no-kill” nation by 2025.
A recent opinion piece by the organization’s CEO conceded that its position is that “keeping pets out of shelters should be a first-choice management protocol.” This philosophy, which Best Friends Animal Society has pressured shelters across the nation to embrace, has deprived countless animals and people who care about them of desperately needed help.
Using bullying tactics and personal attacks, including the frequent use of the divisive term “no kill” and referring to compassionate euthanasia in animal shelters as “killing,” Best Friends Animal Society has created a culture of hate and resentment toward individuals who dedicate their lives to helping homeless animals, including by alleviating their suffering when that is the most humane option.
Due to funding from well-meaning, caring people like you, who may have believed that “no kill” by 2025 was a genuine promise, the organization’s influence has been significant, and the group has spawned additional, similar if less well-known entities that push the same harmful policies, which lead to terrible animal suffering and even more death—though not painless or peaceful.
Animals left out of shelter statistics may not be counted, but they count.
Shipped Off to Abusive Sham ‘Rescues’
In Harlingen, Texas, Best Friends “embedded” in a facility that was largely funded by the city. Shortly after Best Friends took charge, the facility was exposed for refusing to accept animals from residents and for sending at least 50 dogs and cats to an out-of-state self-professed “rescue” that was soon after raided by that state’s humane authorities because of criminally cruel conditions. The city eventually took back control of its animal shelter.
Left to Starve on the Streets and Attack Residents
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Best Friends “embedded,” problems are routinely reported. Just months after the “embed” was announced, the publicly funded facility closed “indefinitely” because of a distemper outbreak. Later, a media report revealed that animal advocates in Tulsa had been finding animals who were abandoned on roadsides—some already dead, some pregnant, and others starving and emaciated.
In Fresno, California, where the publicly funded city shelter is a Best Friends partner, animals are routinely left on the streets because the facility claims to be “full.” A worker was recorded on video abandoning a large, panting dog on a city street during dangerously hot weather, and employees have reportedly told residents to just drop off stray animals where they found them, including a dog who appeared to be ill and pregnant. In a media report about the increase in roaming packs of dogs in the community, a veterinarian said that many of her clients had been told not to take lost and homeless animals to the publicly funded facility. The report described incidents in which packs of dogs had attacked postal workers and residents near schools and community centers. In addition, a woman had been attacked and killed by a pack in a neighboring city.
Blood-Soaked Kennels, Dogs Dying in the Cold
El Paso Animal Services in Texas allegedly ended its contract with Best Friends after the city’s animal shelter faced public backlash over the facility’s refusal to accept animals from residents. According to its agreement, Best Friends was given “direct oversight responsibilities over the management and employees” of the shelter—to the detriment of the community’s residents and animals.
Paula Powell was the facility’s director when a news report exposed that animals were being warehoused, resulting in deadly dog fights in crowded, blood-covered kennels. Also while Powell directed operations at the facility, it was reported that at least four dogs had died during extremely low temperatures after they were moved to outdoor kennels and a barn, which had been built in an attempt to “save more lives.” Despite these alarming conditions that occurred during Powell’s tenure at Animal Services, Best Friends later hired Powell to serve as a senior regional manager and senior strategist.
Starving to Death in Kennels
Shortly after Best Friends “embedded” at the animal shelter in Harris County, Texas, the facility was reportedly housing 534 animals in a space designed to house only 200 and crowding “five to six animals to a kennel.” The facility later shut its doors and refused to accept animals from residents. Volunteers and the former lead veterinarian later expressed concerns to county elected leaders about what they believed were criminally cruel conditions at the facility, including that animals were not receiving timely needed medical care and were “starving to death in their kennels.” The former lead veterinarian said, “Almost every animal [who] leaves the shelter does so in a worse condition than when they arrived …. Animals should not be doing better on the streets of Houston than in the care of veterinarians, technicians, kennel staff and management and a multi-million dollar facility brought to you by the taxpayer.”
Workers Fired for Trying to Prevent Abusers From Adopting Animals
After Indianapolis Animal Care Services in Indiana partnered with Best Friends, the agency fired two shelter employees for screening potential adopters to ensure that animals weren’t being released to individuals who had been convicted of certain violent crimes—including cruelty to animals—in the previous three years. In 2022, the shelter had started using MyCase, a court case database, to screen potential adopters after the facility adopted a dog to an individual who tortured him to death. In a statement to a local news outlet about the firing of the two workers, the facility said that it had stopped screening potential adopters—including doing criminal background checks—at the behest of Best Friends.
Best Friends admitted that it had indeed “advised against” using MyCase, a publicly available criminal background check system. In response to public backlash, it stood by its promotion of “open adoptions,” in which commonsense screening processes to try to protect animals from neglect and abuse are eliminated.
Overcrowding, Filth, and Dogs Caged for Months Without Walks
A Best Friends partnership with Los Angeles Animal Services resulted in numerous lawsuits. Since the partnership ended, Best Friends has offered and then withdrawn support to the city and recently began a smear campaign to bully the municipality to “become ‘no-kill.’” Los Angeles appears to be bending to pressure from Best Friends and others to attain certain statistics, which would give them “no-kill” status by implementing many of Best Friends’ irresponsible recommendations. This has resulted in notoriously overcrowded shelters, animals being kept in filthy cages, dogs being warehoused for months without walks, shelters turning away homeless animals in violation of state law, and residents being told to abandon cats outdoors to fend for themselves, among other practices that cause animals to suffer and die in horrible ways, alone and in pain.
Distemper Outbreaks and ‘Dumped’ Dogs Denied Shelter
In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a distemper outbreak shut down the Pine Bluff Animal Control shelter for months at the onset of Best Friends’ “embedding” at the facility. The shelter also started refusing to accept animals, including stray and “dumped” dogs.
Unsterilized Animals Released to Breed
Less than a month after Best Friends “embedded” at Roswell Animal Services in Roswell, New Mexico, the facility shut down due to a large number of sick animals. It reportedly reopened but closed its doors again when a dog was diagnosed with distemper. Shelter policy changes since the “embedding” began include allowing animals to leave the facility without having been spayed and neutered—a practice that no responsible shelters allow, as it inevitably results in animals reproducing and creating even more homeless and unwanted animals who have nowhere to go.
Urge Your Local Shelter and Elected Officials to Say ‘No’ to Best Friends’ Destructive Policies
Best Friends’ policies leave shelters in shambles, and they leave animals without the help they desperately need and deserve. Please urge your local shelter and elected officials to stand firm against Best Friends’ pressure and instead address animal overpopulation and homelessness humanely and effectively by offering low- and no-cost sterilization services, keeping shelters open to all, and passing legislation aimed at preventing more births.
These pages list examples of “no kill” gone wrong, often directly involving Best Friends Animal Society and sometimes other “no-kill” extremists.
