Utah

Few things get me down more than a sick or hurt animal. But few things get me cheering quicker than people who help animals in need. Travelers who help animals, then, really rank high up there for me.
Recently, a friend of mine got married at an amazing no-kill animal sanctuary in southern Utah. Best Friends Animal Society is home to about 2,000 animals – mostly cats and dogs, but some others, too: horses, birds (including wild raptors like the one to the right), livestock and more. My friend and her new husband made some time to volunteer after exchanging vows. Brilliant!
Best Friends animals come from all sorts of situations. Some are abandoned. Some are displaced by events like Hurricane Katrina. However they wind up there, the Best Friends staff and volunteers do their best to rehabilitate the animals and get them ready to be adopted. Others might be too sick or too old to be adopted – or may have physical or behavioral problems. In those cases, they stay at Best Friends, living among people who can care for them properly.
The sanctuary seems to thrive on visitors. There are four tours per day, seven days a week. And if you have a few spare hours on your vacation, the staff can find some way for you to help. The Web site says a lot of the animals have special needs, so any hand you can lend is sure to make a few creatures’ lives a bit better. You can contact the staff ahead of time to [...]