Best Friends Animal Sanctuary — Attraction in Four Corners States

We came across the best friend animal sanctuary on the way to Kanab, UT. I always love animals so I looked it up and found that they offer tours, so we booked the grand tour. Our guide Gary is a true animal lover and so kind and shared a lot of stories about their rescued horse, cats and pigs on the tour. Many animals were in bad condition when they were taken in, but through care and patience they recover to be in good health. Gary is very compassionate and knows the individual animals’ conditions. Best Friends is the largest no kill animal shelter in the United States. After Katrina, they worked to push to change national policy so during a disaster, pets can be rescued along people if conditions allow. Before that, the national guard are required to leave all animals behind during a disaster rescue so this actually means a lot. We get to interact with their cats that have neurological conditions, they are very sweet cats, even though they were still recovering from their conditions I can see that they are opening up to people. They have vet on site and I can see some cats are still getting treatments. The cats look very well cared for and can choose indoor room and outdoor protected catio and come in or go out through a cat door as they wish. We also get to interact with the rescued pigs. Gary told us pigs are very smart animals and can learn up to 2000 commands easy, but since they are lazy and smart they will pretend they don’t understand. It is a blast to pet the pigs, they live in an air conditioned shed with a huge outdoor run with a mud bath. They probably live a better life than a lot of us:) Gary also encouraged us to reach out to local shelters and volunteer if possible, because the staff work in a shelter is often times stressed, underpaid and they can always use some help. I know in this world, a lot of people are struggling to live, but seeing these animals given a second chance and well cared for is still...

I spontaneously decided to book the Grand Sanctuary Tour while heading home from a road trip vacation when I realized Best Friends was right along my route. I’ve known about Best Friends for nearly 30 years but had never visited—and I’m so glad I finally did! I was absolutely blown away.

The sanctuary is stunning—far more beautiful and expansive than I expected. The facilities are outstanding and thoughtfully designed, with large areas dedicated to each animal species to help reduce stress. The surrounding red rock landscape makes it all the more breathtaking.

Steven gave me a warm welcome at the Visitor Center and helped me get oriented. Before he left for the day, we spent a few minutes chatting about our shared interest in dog training and behavior, which was a really fun connection to make. Anne led the tour and was both incredibly knowledgeable and full of joy—her love for the sanctuary really came through.

After the tour, I stopped in Roxy’s Room, where I chatted with Daryl. Not only did he help me learn more about Beet, the sweet puppy I’d just met, but he also shared ideas on great places to camp in the area. He was extremely helpful and kind. When I decided to adopt Beet, Daryl texted Sarah, the adoption counselor, because he knew that otherwise, my application might not get processed until the next day. Sarah drove down from DogTown to meet me at the Welcome Center and finalize the adoption. They even sent me home with a bag full of supplies, including the food Beet had been eating.

I renamed my girl Opal, and I couldn’t be happier. Every staff member I met was welcoming, supportive, and clearly passionate about helping both animals and visitors.

If you get the chance to visit Best Friends—do it! Take a tour, stay on site in a cabin or your camper, volunteer, or maybe even meet your new best friend. It’s absolutely...

My daughter had been waiting to come here for a long time. Many years since she had heard about it. Not wanting to sign up to volunteer for four hours in the heat for someone her age, she opted to just ‘come and see’ so we could go freely and visit the many thousands of animals we had heard about. Boy were we wrong! You can’t visit bunnies, horses, goats, pigs, birds or even more than a handful of cats without a reservation online. Even when looking in advance days prior they were taken up. There are three places you can ‘pet animals’ the cat place had one cat… to pet. It made it sound like a palace, and there are multiple building with cats in them, that you can’t go in. We got a tour from a nice lady where there were several pit bulls to choose from if you wanted to adopt and a couple of cats. And the last place to pet cats, is at the visitors center. (There were 4 cats) I spoke with another family that came in the cat place and they too were extremely let down. It looked like they had traveled from afar with their special needs son, and they were extremely disappointed. Another store owner I spoke to in town also told us there are always people disappointed at the way things are run at the shelter. This is way overrated. I would have happily paid money for my daughter to pet bunnies, or even take a dog on the grass to play fetch with, or even had a pass to see the hundreds of cats(with donated $) But I guess they have enough big lib donors they don’t need our petty cash to actually see the animals. We won’t ever come back here again, even being familiar with how things work. We can go to C-A-L ranch to pet bunnies, and our local shelter to pet a handful of dogs and cats. This place is an absolute joke. I also think it’s a requirement to have your hair colored an ungodly color...