BENTONVILLE, Ark. — They say furry friends are considered your best friends. Best Friends Animal Society is the leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters by 2025.
In Arkansas, 42 shelters are classified as “no-kill.” A “no-kill” state is considered to be no-kill when every brick-and-mortar shelter serving and/or located within the state has a save rate of 90% or higher).15 of those shelters are in Northwest Arkansas.
“Between 2021 and 2020 we’ve made a little bit of progress in the life saving here in the state. We still have a long way to go,” said Jackie Roach, Executive Director of NWA Best Friends Animal Society.
Best friends animal society is building a pet resource center that should open by the end of this year.
Jackie Roach – Executive Director of NWA Best Friends Animal Society.
“It won’t really be a shelter so much, we’ll have adoptions, lots of volunteer opportunities, but we will be working there to support the community,” said Roach.
The Resource Center will have a clinic and offer low-cost resources to those who qualify.
“It’s expensive to own a pet and we just want to ensure we can offer services to community members who need it. We want people to be able to keep pets in their homes,” said Roach.
In the past eight months, the organization helped find homes for 369 pets with 69 of those adoptions happening last month.
“Our goal this year is 750 adoptions out of this particular center, and that’ll increase when we go to the pet resourcing center,” said Roach.
Best Friends reported nearly 80% of dogs and cats in Arkansas shelters were saved last year, up about one percent from 2020. The organization hopes its expanded presence in northwest Arkansas leads to further improvement.
“There’s shelters and communities that are working really hard to save more animals. But they need community support,” said Roach.
If you are looking to adopt an animal, you can head to their website bestfriends.org/nwa to fill out a survey or come in person to complete the adoption process. Best Friends is working to Save Them All.
DOWNLOAD THE 5NEWS APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE 5NEWS APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KFSM in the Channel Store.
For Fire TV, search for "KFSM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com.