Best Friends: Saving Canines by the Thousands

A medium-sized brown canine named Houdini found his forever home nearly thirteen years after he’d been rescued during Hurricane Katrina. Brought to the Best Friends Animal Society’s Sanctuary (Sanctuary) in Kanab, Utah, he’d been adopted as a youngster but returned thanks to his escape artist ability. Over the years, he mellowed. The nearly fifteen-year-old dog was adopted this past July.

“We were so surprised,” said Julie Tasch, the Sanctuary’s Dogtown Manager.

Houdini’s potential adopters, including their pug, drove to southern Utah to meet him. They’d wanted an older dog, and their home was set up for seniors- complete with pet ramps. Houdini, sometimes a bit grumpy because of his arthritis, got along well with the pug and the pug’s humans. That sealed his good fortune; he’d found his forever home. Best Friends flew him free of charge to his new home.

Dogtown is located on a portion of the Sanctuary’s 3,700-acre property. The Sanctuary also takes in cats, birds, pigs, goats, rabbits, burros, mules, and horses, with a total animal population of about 1,600. It’s this nation’s largest home for rescued animals and provides adoption, spaying and neutering, and educational services. The Sanctuary is located in a red rock canyon that was sacred to the ancient peoples of the southwest. The Best Friends’ website notes “Visitors to the Sanctuary feel the healing effects of the animals and the canyon and a connection to something very powerful.”

Best Friends’ national operation and budget are huge. Last year, it operated on a $92 million-plus budget with 76.5 percent spent on animal-related expenses, 15.5 percent on fundraising efforts and 8 percent on management and general expenses. Funding primarily came from individuals who donated more than $95.2 million, according to the Best Friends’ website. Corporations and foundation grants totaled $8.8 million, and $28.4 million was listed for in-kind donations, including for volunteers who help walk, socialize, and clean up after all the animals. About 25,000 visitors tour the property every year.

The Sanctuary was organized in 1984 by a group of thirty-one individuals who wanted to reduce the number of dogs and cats euthanized in shelters nationwide. Over a thirty-four-year period, that national kill number dropped from an estimated 17 million cats and dogs each year to 1.5 million, according to the Best Friends’ website which says that 1,500 no kill shelters exist across the country. Fifteen of the original founders still play an active role at Best Friends. Their “Save Them All” motto continues today.

Dogtown

Unlike breed-specific rescue groups, Dogtown’s canine population consists of lots of mixes and a variety of breeds, often herding and cattle dog breeds as well as “pitties.”

Dogtown houses between 350 to 400 dogs at any given time, Tasch said, and between forty and seventy are adopted each month. The majority of Dogtown canines are between the ages of one and six years old, although a sizeable number are seniors, she added.

Dogtown is staffed with nearly fifty employees, including four behavioral specialists who work with the more difficult behavioral cases. The canines are separated into two main groups: Old Dogtown and Dogtown Heights. Within each group, dogs are housed by themselves, or in groups of two to four. Separately housed dogs and those living with other canines have access at all times to an inside area with bedding and a water bucket, and outside yard.

Each new arrival is carefully screened and evaluated before assigned to its housing quarters, Tasch explained. For their first week, new arrivals only play during the day with their new friends and sleep at night in separate quarters. On the eighth night, they room with other dogs. Similar-sized canines are housed with one another.

The Sanctuary has only a small puppy population that lives in an area separate from adults. The puppies come primarily from the southwestern United States. A few are placed with local foster families until they are adopted.

Each area in Dogtown has its own routine that includes individual attention for its residents on a daily or every-other-day basis. Tasch said attention may include “walks, car rides, golf cart rides, nose work, agility, play dates, outings, creek hikes, and socialization.”

In addition to the Sanctuary, Best Friends operates regional shelters for dogs and cats in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, and New York City. It also partners with about 2,300 shelters and rescue organizations across the country.

Network Partners

Best Friends accepts shelters and other nonprofit organizations, including breed rescue groups, dedicated to helping dogs and cats, as network partners. To become a network partner, such organizations or groups must apply and attest to their proper care and compliance with all applicable animal protection laws, that they are actively working towards the Best Friends’ goal of no more homeless pets, and demonstrate their commitment to the no kill principle, Tasch said.

Network partners’ benefits include participation in national adoption promotions, ability to apply to the Sanctuary to accept its hard-to- place dogs or cats; discounts and scholarships to educational conferences, training for animal control officers, mentorship in a variety of shelter-related areas, consultations with the Sanctuary staff, and grant awards for making a significant impact on shelter deaths in their communities.

Amber van Leuken noted many of these benefits. She said she and her staff enjoy the ability to contact Best Friends for help with problem solving and coordination with moving animals among shelters across the state. As the executive director of Ark-Valley Humane Society (Ark-Valley) in Buena Vista, Colorado, van Leuken noted that the shelter, a network partner for about four years, works hard towards the goal of no more homeless pets. According to van Leuken, Ark-Valley, took in 499 dogs and 327 cats last year, and had a 99 percent live release. For its work towards the no more homeless pets’ goal, Ark-Valley received the Best Friends’ Lifesaving Luminary Award for the Mountain West Region in 2017. It had reduced the average stay of animals to two weeks, which allowed it to accept cats and dogs from other facilities.

Van Leuken also said Ark-Valley, a non-profit organization, so far hasn’t needed to ask the Sanctuary to take any of its dogs but her staff has successfully worked with Best Friends to advertise hard-to-place felines. When some of her staff members attended Best Friends’ national conferences at reduced rates, they returned with fresh ideas and information that could be used to tweak existing operations. Each year, Ark-Valley files a report, which includes intake and outtake statistics, with Best Friends to show its commitment to reducing the homeless pet population.

Where do Dogtown’s dogs come from? Tasch responded:

• Best Friends’ network partners submit a written application, plus a video of the canine interacting with humans and other dogs, when they want to transfer a dog to the Sanctuary. Usually network partners’ applications are for hard-to-place canines with medical or social issues.
• Best Friends’ regional facilities also send dogs to the Sanctuary.
• Best Friends supports the local community in part by taking in dogs from shelters and animal control units within a two-hour radius of Kanab.
• Occasionally, local owners walk in and ask to surrender their dog directly to Dogtown which takes the canine provided it has space available on that day.

Before Dogtown agrees to accept any dog, its staff carefully considers the canine’s needs and Dogtown’s current population, trying to maintain a balance of friendly canines with those requiring more attention to include shy, reactive, aggressive, and medical issue dogs.

Tasch said that employees first check with their medical clinic staff that includes veterinarians, to assess whether they can help a dog with medical needs. In the past, they’ve treated canines with valley fever, heartworm, and orthopedic issues. Besides on-site medical care, to include acupuncture, hydrotherapy, and physical therapy, dogs needing further diagnostic testing or advanced orthopedic surgeries may be treated at a Las Vegas emergency clinic. Additionally, a Phoenix orthopedic surgeon periodically helps out at the Sanctuary.

Dogtown’s population includes some canines with minor behavioral challenges-barkers or escape artists- problems that can be relatively easy to accommodate, Tasch said.  But canines with severe separation anxiety issues or those that don’t get along with other dogs can be more challenging. “And dogs with bite histories tend to be our longest residents,” she said.

The decision as to whether to take in a dog involves the question: “What can we do for this canine. Otherwise we would be full within two days,” she explains.

How can members of the public adopt a Dogtown canine? First, fill out an online application that asks information about your housing situation, the ages of household occupants, and your household’s general noise and activity level. Next identify a dog that you are interested in adopting. Staff will follow up with a telephone interview. Although staff encourage potential adopters to meet their potential new family member at the Sanctuary, that visit is not always necessary.

Tasch noted that staff members look for reasons for adopters to find a match with a Dogtown canine because they want their canines to find homes. If the applicant and a particular dog aren’t a good fit, she noted, staff look at a different option. “We want the adoption to be successful.” The Dogtown staff want canines to become family dogs, not just an outside pet or guard dog.

The standard adoption fee for a puppy or adult canine is $100. But, Tasch said Best Friends’ promotions may lower or even eliminate the fee. Additionally, Dogtown’s BLISS (Behavioral Lifelong In-home Support) dogs, which have minor behavioral issues, are free to adopt. A Best Friends behavioral consultant creates an individualized training plan for such dogs. BLISS adopters also have access to staff behavioral consultants at any time.

All adoptees are spayed or neutered, fully vaccinated, and microchipped before they join their new family. By contract, adopters must return their adoptee to the Sanctuary if the adoption doesn’t work out for any reason. She estimates that less than 10 percent of the adoptees are returned to the Sanctuary.

Tasch said that most but not all of Dogtown’s residents find forever homes. Those that aren’t adopted, live out their lives at the Sanctuary, she noted. About thirty Dogtown dogs die from medical and/or old age issues each year.

“Volunteers are crucial in helping make sure the canines get as much attention as possible,” Tasch said.

Dog lovers may want to consider visiting the Sanctuary on their next vacation and volunteer to give a few canines some added attention at this dedicated rescue community. But know that one of these former hard-luck dogs just may want to become your next family member!

Related post:

https://www.caryunkelbach.com/safe-harbor-lab-rescue-a-new-life-for-so-many/