Best Friends
Best Friends is Wild About Animals
In the middle of the spectacular scenery so often seen in the old Western movies is an informal refuge for wildlife, a natural habitat that also is the home of the nation’s largest companion animal sanctuary.
Volunteering at Best Friends has become a popular travel adventure experience.
The large welcome sign at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary beckons visitors as they drive through the spectacular red rock canyons on Highway 89 between Kanab and Zion National Park. But once drivers veer onto Angel Canyon Road and wind their way down the 1.5 mile path to the Welcome Center, the first animals they see will likely be jackrabbits, wild turkeys, deer, bald eagles, hawks, or perhaps even a bobcat bounding off a cliff as it runs toward Kanab Creek.
In 2009, more than 32,000 people visited Best Friends and another 8,500 stayed to volunteer. Whether the volunteers taking dogs on walks find ravens freewheeling through the sky nearby, noticing deer grazing while feeding parrots in the aviaries, or delivering hay to horses under the watchful eye of wild turkeys, there is always a sense of the synergy within the animal kingdom.
And while most people think of homeless pets when they think of Best Friends, there also is a vibrant wildlife department. “Wild Friends” operates a state and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitation program to help injured wild animals return to freedom.
Often described as the nation’s most beloved animal sanctuary, Best Friends is home on any given day to about 1,700 cats, dogs, bunnies, parrots, birds, horses, and potbellied pigs. The homeless pets come from shelters and rescue groups around the country. Each animal comes to the sanctuary with its own story of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. At Best Friends they are under the watchful eye of caregivers who attend to their needs, always with the goal of a happy ending to their story – adoption into a new, loving, life-long home. Don’t just make a visit to Best Friends a stop on your travel itinerary, but make it an enriching experience that will most certainly leave its mark on you for years to come. Who knows? You might even come away with a certain special animal that has captured your heart. Best Friends offers full tours of the sanctuary each day. The tours take approximately an hour and a half and wind through Angel Canyon, stopping at one of our Cat buildings and one of our Dog buildings. Visitors also pass by Horse Haven, Piggy Paradise, Bunny and the Parrot Garden.
To reserve space on a tour, please call 435-644-2001, ext. 4537 or e-mail visiting@bestfriends.org. To volunteer with the sanctuary animals call 435-644-2001, ext. 4119 or e-mail volunteers@bestfriends.org ?
