Best Friends Animal Society Named 2021 Animal Welfare Nonprofit Brand of the Year
Best Friends Animal Society has been named a Brand of the Year* in the 2021 Harris Poll EquiTrend® study. This is the sixth time in the past 10 years Best Friends has been named Animal Welfare Nonprofit Brand of the Year.
Measuring brands' health over time, the EquiTrend Brand Equity Index is comprised of three factors -- Familiarity, Quality and Purchase Consideration -- that result in a brand equity rating for each brand. Brands ranking highest in equity receive the Harris Poll EquiTrend "Brand of the Year" award for their respective categories. (For nonprofits the Purchase Consideration is asked as likely donation.)
"To be named, once again, the animal welfare nonprofit most trusted/loved brand, based on the 2021 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study is an incredible honor," said Greta Palmer, Chief Brand & Communications Officer, Best Friends Animal Society. "This award shows public momentum for Best Friends goal to take our country no-kill by 2025.":
"When Best Friends was founded in 1984, an estimated 17 million pets were being killed in America's shelters each year. A milestone was achieved in 2019 when the total number of cats and dogs killed in America's shelters for a given year dropped below the one million mark, and now, that number has dropped to around 625,000 but it is still too many. That is 625,000 lives cut short simply because these animals who could have been cherished pets did not have safe places to call home. It is tragic. But it is solvable. And we can end the killing for good and help the country achieve no kill by 2025," Palmer said.
No-kill is defined as saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved. A 90% save rate for the animals entering a shelter is the common-sense benchmark for measuring lifesaving progress and considering a shelter no kill. Typically, the number of pets who are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed is not more than 10% of all pets entering shelters.
Since 2012, Best Friends has led No-Kill Los Angeles (NKLA), a citywide initiative which in 2020 achieved no kill for the first time and became the nation's largest no-kill city with a 90.49 lifesaving rate by the year's end.
In 2019 Best Friends launched the pet lifesaving dashboard, an award-winning data visualization tool that recently garnered Best Friends a spot in Fast Company's list of most innovative companies in the world for data science. Best Friends' pet livesaving dashboard provides comprehensive "noses in and noses out" information to the public right down to the shelter level and shows how many animals are entering and leaving U.S. shelter systems regardless of category (healthy, treatable, owner requested euthanasia, etc.). Just simply, how many animals entered a shelter and how many left a shelter alive.
In addition to the pet lifesaving dashboard and the successful program in Los Angeles, Best Friends runs lifesaving programs across the country as well as the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary. Best Friends also maintains lifesaving partnerships with thousands of animal rescue organizations and animal shelters throughout the country - all of them working to help homeless pets and create no-kill communities where they live.
The complete list of Harris Poll EquiTrend Brands of the Year can be found at https://theharrispoll.com/briefs/the-harris-poll-announces-this-years-b…
* Harris Poll EquiTrend® methodology
Best Friends Animal Society received the highest numerical Equity Score and the highest numerical score relating to Trust and Love among Animal Welfare Nonprofit brands included in the 2021 Harris Poll EquiTrend® Study, which is based on opinions of 39,100 U.S. consumers ages 15 and over surveyed online between January 1 and January 30, 2021. Your opinion may differ. "Highest Ranked" was determined by a pure ranking of a sample of Animal Welfare Nonprofit brands.
About Best Friends Animal Society®
Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters by 2025. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to around 625,000. Best Friends runs lifesaving programs all across the country, as well as the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary. Working collaboratively with a network of more than 3,200 animal welfare and shelter partners, and community members nationwide, Best Friends is working to Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.
