Los Angeles, June 29, 2021 – LA Animal Services has been recognized with the Touchstone award from Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters.
LA Animal Services is a member of the Best Friends Network, which comprises more than 3,300 animal shelters, spay/neuter organizations, and other 501(c)(3) public charity rescue groups across the country working to save the lives of dogs and cats in their communities.
Together, Best Friends and its network partners are working to achieve no-kill for dogs and cats nationwide by 2025. Reaching this goal will mean that every shelter in America is getting the community support it needs to save every dog and cat who can be saved. It means healing the animals who can be healed, treating behaviors that can be treated, and prioritizing public health, safety, and a high quality of life for both pets and people in our communities.When a shelter is saving at least 90% of the dogs and cats that come through its doors, that shelter is designated as no-kill. A no-kill community is a city or town in which every brick-and-mortar shelter serving or located within that community has reached a 90% save rate or higher and adheres to the no-kill philosophy.
LA Animal Services was selected for the Touchstone Award based on national shelter data and work from calendar year 2020 (compared to 2019). National, state, and shelter level data can be found on the pet lifesaving dashboard published by Best Friends.
"It's incredible to see so many shelters around the nation taking dramatic steps to increase lifesaving,” said Brent Toellner, senior director, national programs for Best Friends Animal Society. “Whether it be through new programming, progressive leadership or better collaborative partnerships, these groups are showing that lifesaving success is possible regardless of a shelter’s size or location.”
“With Best Friends we have built a coalition of more than 140 partners dedicated to working with us in creating a safety net for the animals most in need of our shelters,” said Dana Brown, Interim General Manager for LA Animal Services. “We’ve learned that collaboration is key, between shelters and the community -- rescue partners, volunteers, adopters, and fosters -- and these relationships are critical for us in our life saving efforts to continue to assist and care for ‘both ends of the leash’ -- pets and the people who love them.”
Toellner added: "It's going to take embracing all models of lifesaving, as well as maximizing collaboration with and support of each other to reach our goal of ending the killing of pets in shelters by 2025. But with so much progress being made, getting our nation to a point where it has finally put a stop to the unnecessary deaths of animals in shelters not only seems possible, but inevitable.”
For more information about Los Angeles Animal Services, visit
