In January 2008 Dale Wintlend, Pam Cheatham (Dogs Deserve Better) and I flew to Las Vegas, rented a car and drove four hours to Best Friends in Kanab, Utah. Best Friends, a sanctuary in the desert has helped lead our nation in improving lives of animals. Faith Maloney, one of the original founders, met us and personally conducted a tour of the sanctuary. Since time was limited we chose to focus on cats and dogs since our facility with initially start in this area.
Pam and Dale at Best Friends.
Everything at Best Friends is first class. They spare no expense on medical bills and they provide quality lives for the animals. When we arrived on our first snowy day we met a horse prancing in the pasture after $17,000 worth of veterinary care and still counting.
Best Friends does not believe in euthanizing healthy animals. However, they do believe in providing the best quality care through veterinary care, exercise and enrichment programs. Last year over 25,000 visitors visited the sanctuary. They are the best example of the ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy.
What is there not to love about Best Friend’s? They should be voted one of the best places in America to work. Employees take their pets to work (many offices have catteries or dog friendly offices) and many of the staff we met had lucrative careers prior to moving to the edge of the Grand Canyon to pursue a passion.
The cats have wonderful indoor/outdoor facilities that are completely disinfected daily. Shelves are placed at varying heights in the interior rooms and the exterior rooms have cat walks near the ceiling with trees angled in different directions allowing the cats to access as much of the cubic space as possible.
Interior view of cattery with shelving and cat walks.
Interior view of cattery with catwalks.
Exterior view of cattery with catwalks.
We met with a writer, the admissions/veterinary departments (for cats and dogs), adoption staff, behaviorists, funding and animal help/assistance. Needless to say we had non-stop meetings and still did not have enough time. Faith and the staff at Best Friends were absolutely wonderful to us and it is always nice to visit with others who share the same values and passion.