Most college students do not spend spring break scraping cat vomit off travel carriers in the rain and mud.
For eight UW students and a faculty member, however, that’s exactly what they did for spring break, among other animal-related cleaning and caregiving tasks. Partnered with the University’s Center for Student Leadership & Community Engagement (SLCE) for an “alternative spring break,” the students and staff member traveled to Kanab, Utah, to volunteer at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, soaking up the sun (and rain), and making a difference in the lives of many four-legged friends.
Nestled in Angel Canyon, Best Friends facilities spread over 5.8 square miles of desert and are home to over 1,600 animals at any given time. The students trekked nearly every inch of the sanctuary, from Horse Haven to Piggy Paradise, to Parrot Garden and the Bunny House, to Cat World and Dogtown. Caregivers at each animal hub welcomed all the help they could get, and UW happily obliged, shoveling dirt out of dog runs, pulling weeds and spending time socializing animals so they could be ready for adoption.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Best Friends, despite its massive size and operation, is the organization’s absolute dedication to saving the life of every animal that not only walks through its doors but in the entire country.
One of the initiatives of Best Friends is to make the United States a no-kill nation by 2025. No-kill shelters are growing in numbers across the country and the numbers have steadily decreased since the sanctuary’s founding in 1984. The number of animals killed in 1984 peaked at 17 million a year, and now is down to 900,00. For Best Friends and its partner organizations, that number still is far too high.
Many animals euthanized in shelters are dogs and cats are deemed dangerous or unadoptable based solely on looks or breed stereotypes. Best Friends is trying to change that narrative by offering new methods of rehabilitating animals suffering from trauma and behavioral defects, so these animals can be saved from euthanization and also welcomed into a new home.
The most notable success story using these methods came from the Micheal Vick dogs. In 2008 former Falcons star quarterback Micheal Vick was convicted of running an illegal dogfighting ring, where he bred over fifty pit bulls to fight in his rings. Twenty-two of those dogs ended up at Best Friends after the organization pleaded with the federal court to let them try and rehabilitate the dogs instead of putting them down.
Caregivers at Best Friends spent months assessing dogs’ individual personality, earning each dogs trust of humans again, and proving that pitbulls are not naturally aggressive animals but are simply dogs, willing to do anything for their humans despite all the pain humans had caused them.
Each of the Vick dogs — renamed the “Vicktory” dogs by Best Friends — had to pass a canine good citizenship test before being released for adoption. Only two dogs, Lucas and Meryl, were court ordered to live at the sanctuary for the rest of their lives.
The success of the Vicktory dogs marked a milestone for Best Friends and no-kill organizations across the nation. While the UW volunteers did not run into the street to save any animals, they still contributed greatly to the prosperity of Best Friends.
Making the country no-kill is more than just ending the euthanization of innocent creatures — it’s providing those animals with the care they need and fostering the skills needed to be adopted and have a second chance at a permanent home. With the help of student volunteers and compassionate citizens, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary hopes to accomplish the mission it set out to achieve 35 years ago, and truly save them all.
For more information, visit BestFriends.org.
