The Best Friends Podcast

In 2016, 2.3-million Americans lived in a home that was served an eviction notice. During the foreclosure crisis in 2008, 10-million Americans lost their home. Experts believe that by the end of this year, 28-million Americans will face eviction due to the economic downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every community in every state will be affected, and by our rough estimate, more than 40-mi...

We’re gotten pretty good at saving dogs in shelters, but that’s not the case for cats. 69% of all animals killed last year were feline. That two-to-one ratio of cats killed to dogs has not improved year over year, and it’s clear that what we’ve been doing isn't effective. So what is working when it comes to saving cats? Launched in 2014, the Million Cat Challenge smashed its goal of saving one mil...

Starting in the 1970s, the animal sheltering movement slowly began to reject the practice of automatically euthanizing animals surrendered by the public at the owner's behest. This service, known as owner requested euthanasia (ORE), is still offered in many communities but only after consultation with the owner and the shelter staff and veterinarians. If the animal is determined to have an adequat...

It wasn’t that long ago that the majority of dogs rescued from dogfighting operations were killed without any kind of behavior evaluation. It was widely accepted that they were too dangerous for a second chance. That changed with the rescue of the dogs from Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels. The plea to evaluate the dogs was heard, and since that time, they have served as an example of how every ani...

Every animal is an individual and their journeys are as unique as they are. Each of them has a story waiting to be told and these stories are how we connect our community to the work we do. Writing effective adoption bios leads to higher adoption rates. Cutting through the increasing noise on social media requires captivating stories. Donors and volunteers need to feel invested in your mission bef...

Each year, a dedicated group of Best Friends staff and volunteers compile a colossal spreadsheet with 611,000 individual cells of data. This comprehensive dataset tracks lifesaving across the country and the latest numbers are in. It wasn’t that long ago that our field worked in the dark, not knowing where and how animals were being killed. It’s impossible to develop effective, targeted programs t...

America loves cats. There are conventions entirely devoted to felines and the people who love them. The internet helped spur the mania with worldwide sensations like Grumpy Cat, who have forever changed popular culture. Despite our collective obsession with felines, they continue to be the animal most often killed in shelters. More than two-thirds of cats who enter shelters lose their lives. Some...

Caring for and protecting companion animals involves strong emotions. Understanding how we feel and harnessing our feelings for productive solutions, recognizing and respecting how others feel so that we can bring them along is equally as important as we navigate lifesaving change across the nation. Emotions impact every facet of the human experience. Decades of research shows that as we improve o...

The nation is gripped by racial tensions and division exacerbated by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis. Days of protests and demonstrations in all fifty states are demanding an end to police brutality, and have underscored conversations about institutionalized racism and the treatment of people of color in American society. Animal...

Think about the last time you were upset in your professional life. Maybe you were angry, or sad (or both). What did you do with that emotion? Did you allow it to affect you in a way that it threw you off your game? Our skill at managing emotions - of all kinds - can be measured by something called emotional intelligence. It’s not about removing the emotions, quite the opposite. How do you manage...

Thanks to the most accurate and detailed dataset in animal welfare history, it is possible to see the number of animals killed nationally and all the way down to your community. Effectively using the data drives the lifesaving efforts of Best Friends. For communities that have a lot of lives to save, the embed program, as it's known, brings Best Friends staff to the community. Be it short ter...

Our work has evolved rapidly the past several years as we all work to change an institutionalized sheltering system that was not designed to save lives. The operational changes during COVID-19 have served to accelerate even more change and a determined group of leaders believes now is the time for us to create a new paradigm. Historically our focus has been on helping pets but peopl...

The progress towards a no-kill nation has been remarkable. From approximately 17-million animals killed in 1984 to 733,000 in 2019. Of course, one healthy or treatable pet killed is one too many. Saying we need to end the killing of pets is great, but it takes a strategy to help the 5,000 shelters across the country get there. And a strategy is great, but it’s even better when you get specific wit...

As governments scrambled to react to the COVID-19 pandemic, one word dominated conversations related to stay at home orders. Essential. Is the service or business, critical to the health and welfare of the community? Where do animal services fit into that picture? While there’s little debate that animal control is necessary as a component of public safety, other elements of what we do were being j...

Neonatal kittens are one of the most vulnerable populations in animal shelters. The resources necessary to save them haven’t always been available but that has changed over the last few years. An ever-growing, committed group of volunteers has offered a lifeline to newborn kittens. Our guest, Hannah Shaw, has helped in a big way. She has amassed a huge audience which she uses to educate the world...

Stress and adversity are part of life. How we deal with it is what matters most. How do we stay gritty, persevere, and show up as our best selves even amid a pandemic?  By building our personal resilience, we increase our ability to cope, and that allows us to face adversity head-on and stay in the driver's seat. An important goal when the animals are depending on us.  Another in a...

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming clearer for municipal governments, and the projected revenue shortfalls are causing across the board budget cuts. Animal services in communities large and small are facing decisions on how to do more with less. How do you keep up lifesaving while also providing necessary services to the public when your budget is cut by 15%? It will take com...

The work in animal welfare, municipal sheltering, and field services can be emotionally, mentally, and physically taxing. The emotional peaks and valleys affect us all differently but over time, the impact of them must be acknowledged. The evolution of our profession has spurred a heightened recognition of the need to care for ourselves and each other so that we can continue our lifesaving work. T...

Virginia is on the precipice of no-kill statewide but one of the cities that has not yet crossed the 90% threshold is the city of Norfolk, a coastal community in the Hampton Roads metro area.  A recent change in leadership converged with the need for community collaboration as the pandemic set in, and the results were nothing short of magnificent. If it was ever Norfolk's time,...

Feeling a little blue? The Pitt County Animal Shelter just might have the cure… if you're game enough to let it all hang out! And it’s National Volunteer Week! We visited with a volunteer in Philly who hasn’t let a pandemic slow down her support for her local shelter. And a conversation with Gina Knepp, former director of the City of Sacramento Animal Shelter and now the Director of Shelter Outrea...

There are communities around the country that are thriving during what is a very difficult time. What makes them so successful and what lessons can we all learn from them? We'll be looking at some of those communities on The Best Friends Podcast and we're starting with Chicago. It's the 3rd largest city in the country and Chicago's municipal shelter, CACC, has not had the best reputation in t...

It's National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week and now, more than ever, we must appreciate the crucial work they do to save lives each and every day. Animal control is always an essential service, especially during a pandemic, which means field services teams are shifting what they do and how they do it to ensure they're still providing services to the community in the face of social dist...

More than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment… so far... and we don't know what the future will be. Adapting, pivoting, whatever you want to call it, doing it well gives us the best chance to get through this. Saving lives takes money, so fundraising is always an integral part of what makes us successful. With a recession looming (and a potential depression), shifting your tactics to...

Necessity is the mother of invention” is a mantra that Best Friends CEO Julie Castle deeply believes in. It’s a mantra that established her position in animal welfare decades ago, and it’s a mantra that ignites her leadership of an industry that was suddenly dismantled and reassembled overnight. COVID-19 has meant the end of animal sheltering as American society has known it since the 19 th  ...

An animal welfare professional’s typical day includes unparalleled joy and heart-wrenching despair, often in equal measure. Small triumphs are huge, huge losses are expected. The burn out is real but it’s the hard-won progress that sustains us. This is the launch of the Best Friends Podcast. We'll bring you stories from the front lines of lifesaving. You’ll hear from leading experts on topics that...