A year of advocacy and awareness: Rallying supporters
Every day, people like you make a difference in the lives of homeless pets. But it’s the collective action — the sum of all these individual efforts — that drives transformative change.
In 2024, Best Friends continued to build lifesaving momentum through public awareness campaigns, strategic partnerships, and impactful policy changes.
Amplifying the cause
The path to no-kill nationwide requires widespread awareness. In 2024, Best Friends launched the Bring Love Home campaign, a national effort to inspire more families to adopt rather than buy pets. The campaign’s PSA, which premiered in New York City’s Times Square in April, reached 143 million people, calling on animal lovers to help get more dogs and cats out of shelters and into homes.
Our message spread even further through collaborations with The Golden Bachelor, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Arthur the King. Additionally, Sonny, a puppy from our New York City lifesaving center, played for Team Ruff in Puppy Bowl XX, and Best Friends CEO Julie Castle appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show and the Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon podcast.
Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR driver Alex Bowman also helped “bring zoomies home,” showcasing Best Friends on the No. 48 car and visiting our center in New York. To top it all off, Best Friends rang the New York Stock Exchange bell, amplifying the message in a big way.
Shaping policy for animals
While public awareness is essential, lasting change requires strong policy and legislative action. In 2024, Best Friends helped secure two landmark state-level commitments for no-kill. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared 2024 as No-Kill Shelter Year, positioning Utah to become the largest no-kill state in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a proclamation for Virginia Loves Shelter Animals Month, with the goal of achieving a no-kill Virginia in 2025. These victories set a powerful precedent, inspiring other states to follow suit.
Best Friends also celebrated 40 legislative wins across 17 states, addressing critical issues such as breed-specific laws, puppy mills, and community cat ordinances.
The city council in North Little Rock, Arkansas, unanimously adopted an ordinance change allowing for trap-neuter-vaccinate-return for community cats — a pivotal victory that will save lives, reduce community cat populations, and help local shelters.
Harnessing the power of people
The 2025 Action Team, Best Friends’ grassroots advocacy group, laid the foundation for these legislative wins and fueled lifesaving momentum in communities across the country. Growing to over 125,000 advocates in 2024, the team sent messages to lawmakers, gathered more than 9,400 petition signatures, and took over 2,800 actions during National Action Week for Animals.
Volunteers were also instrumental in turning action into change. One of the most impactful volunteer efforts involved flagging pet sales ads in online marketplaces, which often violated the platforms’ terms of service. Last year, Best Friends volunteers dedicated 3,098 hours to removing 743,840 of these ads — demonstrating that, together, we’re making a difference one action, one policy, and one voice at a time.
Forward momentum
Because of you, there was much to celebrate in 2024 — including a record year of lifesaving for cats. For dogs, however, the situation is still urgent: Despite a boost in dog adoptions last year, the number of dogs killed in shelters increased.
That’s why, in 2024, we began leaning into momentum like never before. The reality is that hundreds of shelters are on the verge of becoming no-kill — they just need a little help to get there. Whether it’s bringing a few dogs to a Best Friends Lifesaving Center for adoption or helping shelters launch a foster program, we’re there to help because of you.
One of those shelters is Rankin County Animal Shelter in Mississippi, where Best Friends employee Emily Hirtle worked throughout 2024 to help the shelter save more dogs and cats. The result? Rankin County’s save rate increased from 50% in 2023 to 73% in 2024. Emily’s dedication was also recognized by Southern Living magazine, which named her one of their 2024 Southerners of the Year.