![\"Gregory](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-05-18_18-08-16-111-e1747616940298.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n KANAB, Utah\u2013\u2013<\/strong>Best Friends Animal Society cofounder and former chief executive Gregory Castle,\u00a0 83, \u00a0on May 17, 2025 died suddenly from an embolism.<\/p>\n \u201cBorn in Cranbrook, \u00a0England in 1942,\u201d\u00a0 according to a Best Friends statement posted to social media,\u201d\u00a0 Gregory Castle \u201cgraduated from Cambridge University with a master\u2019s in philosophy and psychology, \u00a0and spent his last 41 years in Utah, \u00a0where he quite literally helped build Best Friends from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregory Castle.\u00a0 (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mused Gregory Castle at the 2013 Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs conference in Portland,\u00a0 Oregon,\u00a0 \u201cMy diploma says I studied \u2018moral philosophy.\u2019\u00a0 I wonder what my life would have been like if I had studied amoral or immoral philosophy instead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA self-proclaimed cat person,\u201d\u00a0 continued the Best Friends statement,\u00a0 Gregory Castle \u201clived with as many as 21 cats during the early days of Best Friends.\u00a0 In recent years however, \u00a0he shared his home with cats Ella and Maggie and dogs, \u00a0including his beloved German shepherds, \u00a0Shadow, Sunny and Marley, \u00a0whom he adopted from Los Angeles shelters and who became his loyal running buddies.<\/p>\n \u201cAn avid runner,\u201d\u00a0 the Best Friends statement recounted,\u00a0 and many longtime acquaintances confirmed,\u00a0 \u201cGregory completed 17 marathons over a 20-year period, \u00a0including three Boston Marathons, \u00a0and at 73 became the oldest person to have ever completed the grueling seven-day, \u00a0170-mile Grand to Grand Ultra through Utah\u2019s back country.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (BFAS photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elaborated fellow Best Friends cofounder Francis Battista in a March 2018 \u201cSalute to Gregory Castle,\u201d\u00a0 posted to social media when Gregory Castle turned his nine-year role as Best Friends chief executive over to his 26-years-younger wife Julie Castle, \u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Grand to Grand Ultra is a six-day, \u00a0seven-night run for maniacs that starts at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and\u00a0finishes up by Bryce Canyon and the Grand Staircase\u2013Escalante National\u00a0Monument.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to set out with all your own food for seven days, \u00a0bedding, \u00a0and personal gear in a backpack. \u00a0I kept an eye out for circling vultures, \u00a0but\u00a0Gregory just kept going and going.\u201d<\/p>\n Admitted Gregory Castle,\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re going to hit times where you really feel that you\u2019re crazy.\u00a0 You have to just push through that.\u201d<\/p>\n The run raised $200,000 in supporter pledges for Best Friends.<\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (LinkedIn photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Testified Battista,\u00a0 now the Best Friends board president,\u00a0 \u201cGregory embodied the ethics of endurance and service, \u00a0and he had a rare sense of humor.<\/p>\n \u201cBack in the day, when all we could afford was our own entertainment, \u00a0we regularly put on skits and absurd talent shows. \u00a0I have seen Gregory perform as a type of Ming the Merciless space villain, \u00a0Elvis, someone from the Village People, \u00a0and assorted loopy characters of the John Cleese variety. \u00a0He loves to laugh. \u00a0Sometimes, \u00a0he laughs so hard that he almost falls out of his chair. \u00a0He is quite happy to be ridiculous.<\/p>\n \u201cGregory is from Folkestone on the southeast English coast,\u201d\u00a0 Battista continued, \u00a0\u201cacross the English\u00a0Channel from Calais in France and the area where some of the civilian fleet\u00a0came from that evacuated the British Army from Dunkirk in 1941.<\/p>\n \u201cFolkestone\u00a0itself was evacuated early in World War II in anticipation of a Nazi invasion,\u201d\u00a0 Battista explained, \u00a0\u201cbut Gregory\u2019s father, \u00a0Folkestone\u2019s city engineer, \u00a0stayed behind to keep\u00a0everything running. \u00a0Gregory\u2019s mother was relocated to a safer location and Gregory\u00a0was born in a country house as an evacuee.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Best Friends Animal Society,\u00a0 now with annual revenues and assets each exceeding $150 million, \u00a0is loosely descended from a Cambridge ecumenical religious discussion group that evolved into a crackpot cult,\u00a0 but survived early misadventures.<\/p>\n The earliest identifiable media notice of the Best Friends Animal Society founders was a brief article by Colin Frost of\u00a0The Independent<\/em>,\u00a0 published on November 21, 1966,\u00a0 headlined \u201cBritish Cultists \u2018Find Paradise\u2019 But Went From Riches to Rags.\u201d<\/p>\n Reported Frost,\u00a0 \u201cFive English youths have returned home from the Mexican headquarters of a cult known as The Process. \u00a0The attorney who brought them home said he found them living in rags in a disused and roofless salt factory in Xtul, \u00a0a remote village [in Yucatan] on the Gulf of Mexico. \u00a0The cult was founded in London,\u201d\u00a0 Frost wrote, \u00a0\u201cby an English couple, \u00a0Robert and Mary Ann de Grimston, \u00a0as an amateur group\u00a0practicing psychotherapy.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn June [1966],\u201d\u00a0 Frost continued,\u00a0 \u201c22 members \u2014 15 men and seven women \u2014 left their six-story house in fashionable Mayfair and went first to the Bahamas, \u00a0then on to Mexico,\u00a0 where after a hurricane hit they were left without gas,\u00a0 electricity, \u00a0water or sanitation.\u00a0 The group lives on beans,\u201d\u00a0 Frost said.<\/p>\n Some of the group,\u00a0 including Hugh Mountain,\u00a0 then a 20-year-old Oxford University dropout, now much better known as Best Friends Animal Society cofounder Michael Mountain,\u00a0 soon relocated again,\u00a0 this time to the United States.<\/p>\n Initially calling themselves \u201cThe Foundation Faith Church of the Millennium,\u201d \u00a0the group first formally incorporated in New Orleans in 1967 as \u201cThe Process Church of the Final Judgement,\u201d\u00a0 claiming that their mission was to \u201cconduct spiritual and occult research.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n During the next five years the Best Friends Animal Society cofounders drifted to Los Angeles;\u00a0 wrote bizarre statements on required public accountability documents, \u00a0essentially mocking bureaucracy; \u00a0and staged flamboyant publicity stunts to help promote their activities and proto-New Age philosophy.<\/p>\n Along the way the group,\u00a0 including Mary Ann de Grimston,\u00a0 split from Robert de Grimston and his Process Church.\u00a0 Mary Ann de Grimston remained involved with Best Friends until her death in 2005.<\/p>\n Scattering geographically,\u00a0 the group gathered additional eventual Best Friends Animal Society cofounders.<\/p>\n (See Philadelphia apologizes for killing African-American animal advocates<\/a>,\u00a0 subtitled <\/strong>\u201cWhat if the MOVE cofounders had attended Cambridge, \u00a0or the Best Friends Animal Society cofounders had come from inner Philadelphia?\u201d<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (BFAS photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Time, \u00a0circumstance, \u00a0and a common interest in\u00a0helping animals reunited the Best Friends Animal Society cofounders, \u00a0as recounted by\u00a0Samantha Glen in\u00a0Best Friends: \u00a0The True Story of\u00a0the World\u2019s Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary<\/em>\u00a0(2001).<\/p>\n Their first animal sanctuary site, \u00a0near Prescott,\u00a0 Arizona, \u00a0lacked adequate water and proved inaccessible to visitors.<\/p>\n Best Friends arrived at Angel Canyon,\u00a0 Utah,\u00a0 after a two-year search for somewhere better than the Prescott locale.<\/p>\n The location is just north of Kanab, \u00a0Utah,\u00a0 and just south of Colorado City.\u00a0 Both were among the last holdout communities of traditional Mormons,\u00a0 including polygamists.\u00a0 While the Kanab polygamists had mostly moved to Mexico before Best Friends arrived,\u00a0 the Colorado City band remained ensconced in fortified homes until a series of FBI raids in 2006-2007,\u00a0 during which Best Friends reportedly took in the polygamists\u2019 animals.<\/p>\n The only Kanab tourist attraction of note when Best Friends came was an abandoned collection of prop buildings used in filming some of the 92 Hollywood westerns that were made at Angel Canyon between 1924, \u00a0when Tom Mix starred in Deadwood\u00a0Coach<\/em>, \u00a0and 1976, \u00a0when Clint Eastwood starred in\u00a0The Outlaw Josie Wales<\/em>, \u00a0the last Kanab\u00a0production.<\/p>\n Best Friends bought the site and gradually turned it into the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary of today.<\/p>\n Julie Castle.\u00a0 (Best Friends photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Initially,\u00a0 to save money,\u00a0 the founders worked under the\u00a0dormant Process Church nonprofit incorporation\u00a0instead of reincorporating. \u00a0They reincorporated in 1995 as the secular Best Friends Animal Society and began rapid growth conceptually promoting no-kill animal sheltering,\u00a0 demonstrated at Angel Canyon,\u00a0 where the Best Friends campus became more-or-less a teaching-and-training facility for would-be no-kill shelter board members and personnel.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first joined Best Friends in 1996,\u201d\u00a0 wrote Julie Castle in a posthumous remembrance,\u00a0 \u201cGregory was a quiet-natured, \u00a0somewhat stand-offish Brit who could solve any problem from plumbing to electricity to internet technology to accounting to woodworking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until Best Friends asked me to help build out our presence in Salt Lake City that I really got to know Gregory.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then, Best Friends was a small, hand-to-mouth organization. It seemed every day was a struggle just to keep the lights on,\u201d\u00a0 Julie Castle said.<\/p>\n Julie Castle. (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSomewhere in the middle of our work in Salt Lake City, \u00a0his calm presence, \u00a0sharp mind, \u00a0and very British sense of humor won me over and we were married in 1998. \u00a0We lived at the Sanctuary near Horse Haven in Cottage #3,\u00a0 which we shared with his 21 cats, \u00a0two birds, \u00a0and two dogs.<\/p>\n Julie Castle,\u00a0 born Julie Stuart,\u00a0 is descended from a Mormon family who settled in Utah in 1847,\u00a0 arriving with Mormon church founder Brigham Young.\u00a0 The marriage thereby linked the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with the cultural history of Utah<\/p>\n \u201cGregory was thoughtful, \u00a0composed, \u00a0a dignified English gentleman who analyzed everything,\u201d\u00a0 Julie Castle recounted.\u00a0 \u201cHe was extremely intelligent, \u00a0but very modest about having shared the same college at Cambridge as Prince Charles, \u00a0Trinity. \u00a0He loved music and played the bagpipes, \u00a0flute, \u00a0harpsichord, \u00a0and violin. \u00a0He was a goofball too.<\/p>\n \u201cHe loved Monty Python,\u201d\u00a0 Julie Castle said, \u00a0\u201cand was part of the Footlights club,\u00a0 the Cambridge dramatic club that\u00a0produced three of the founders of Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was full of endless talents,\u201d\u00a0 including \u201clearning to fly planes,\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cbuilding a harpsichord from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Gregory Castle did not become the public face of the Best Friends Animal Society until after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.<\/p>\n When Gregory Castle did,\u00a0 formally succeeding Michael Mountain in 2009,\u00a0 who stepped down after more than 20 years,\u00a0 the Best Friends Animal Society lurched from a reputation among other no-kill movement leaders for enthusiastic,\u00a0 well-meaning frequent ineptitude,\u00a0 to much better focused efforts that transitioned the originally idealistic organization into a slick corporate entity that over the past 20 years has led \u201cno kill\u201d resolutely in multiple wrong directions.<\/p>\n Not that any of the 18 Best Friends Animal Society personnel now paid from $182,000 to $527,000 per year are likely to admit it.<\/p>\n Whether or not any of Best Friends\u2019 strategic and tactical mistakes over the past two decades have actually saved animals\u2019 lives,\u00a0 as advertised,\u00a0 all of them appear to have made money.<\/p>\n Francis Battista. (BFAS photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Explained Battista in his March 2018 \u201cSalute to Gregory Castle,\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Best Friends reached a transition point after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.<\/p>\n Instead of working with most conventional humane societies out of the Lamar-Dixon fairgrounds rescue center,\u00a0 under incident commander Dave Pauli of the Humane Society of the U.S.,\u00a0 Best Friends,\u00a0 the Humane Society of Louisiana,\u00a0 and several other no-kill humane societies worked out of their own \u201cemergency\u00a0shelters in Tylertown, \u00a0Mississippi, \u00a0and Metairie, \u00a0Louisiana.,\u201d\u00a0 Battista recalled,\u00a0 accessing New Orleans by boat from a Winn Dixie supermarket parking lot.<\/p>\n The no-kill rescue efforts were haphazard.\u00a0 Several times the Best Friends personnel transferred truckloads of pit bulls and substantial sums of money to transport scammers who were supposed to deliver the pit bulls to no-kill facilities in the Northeast and Midwest.\u00a0 Some of the pit bulls disappeared en route<\/em>.\u00a0 Some were found dead where abandoned along the way.<\/p>\n Some of the purported no-kill facilities were hoarding operations.\u00a0 Some did not even exist.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Best Friends was not alone in being scammed.\u00a0 Neither was Best Friends alone in remaining on site long after local authorities asked outside rescuers to leave,\u00a0 as their presence was no longer needed.\u00a0 But Best Friends was the biggest,\u00a0 most visible no-kill organization participating,\u00a0 and as such,\u00a0 reaped a publicity and donations bonanza.<\/p>\n \u201cKatrina thrust us\u00a0onto the national stage,\u201d\u00a0 Battista recounted, \u00a0\u201cbut also blew us off course from our mission of\u00a0working to end the killing in shelters. \u00a0We emerged from Katrina with a\u00a0significant disaster response operation with tons of gear: \u00a0boats, \u00a0trucks, \u00a0RVs,\u00a0 generators, \u00a0portable buildings, \u00a0a mountain of cages and kennels, \u00a0radios and\u00a0satellite phones. \u00a0We trained and ran mock disaster drills. \u00a0When natural\u00a0disasters didn\u2019t happen, \u00a0we found them in hoarding situations \u2014 rescuing 1,500\u00a0rabbits in Reno and 800 cats in Pahrump, \u00a0Nevada \u2014 and then helped out after\u00a0disasters in Lebanon, \u00a0Peru, \u00a0Haiti, \u00a0Mexico and even Ethiopia.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was all great and valuable work,\u201d\u00a0 Battista wrote, \u00a0\u201cand each was a remarkable demonstration\u00a0of principle, but none of them advanced our mission to bring about a time when\u00a0there are no more homeless pets. \u00a0Meanwhile, \u00a0a disaster on the scale of Katrina\u00a0was happening every week in our shelters.<\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (Instagram photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGregory stabilized the organization and got us back on track with our mission,\u201d\u00a0 Battista assessed. \u00a0\u201cHe led Best Friends through the challenging exercise of prioritizing our\u00a0allocation of resources around a very simple standard: \u00a0reducing noses in and\u00a0increasing noses out.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is to say, \u00a0every program that we had,\u00a0 and we had a\u00a0lot,\u00a0 had to measure up with regard to two simple criteria: \u00a0Did it reduce the\u00a0number of animals entering the shelter system (noses in) or increase the\u00a0number of animals leaving the shelter system (noses out)?<\/p>\n \u201cIf a program didn\u2019t\u00a0meet one of those criteria, \u00a0it was cut or de-prioritized. \u00a0This was tough work,\u00a0 and almost everyone had to say goodbye to a pet project that we were doing for\u00a0legacy purposes, \u00a0rather than proven impact on achieving our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n That much made strategic sense.<\/p>\n Gregory Castle.<\/strong><\/em> Battista also praised Gregory Castle as \u201cThe most responsible and reliable person I know,\u201d\u00a0 a questionable perspective in view of the irresponsible outcome of many of Gregory Castle\u2019s subsequent moves.<\/p>\n First came Best Friends\u2019 role in accepting,\u00a0 establishing,\u00a0 and promoting a 90% \u201clive release rate\u201d as the benchmark for an animal shelter becoming \u201cno-kill.\u201d<\/p>\n This came about through an agreement brokered in multiple stages over several months in 1995 by Maddie\u2019s Fund called the Asilomar Accords.\u00a0 The Asilomar Accords were initially meant to establish uniformly agreed upon statistical norms for the animal welfare sector as a whole.<\/p>\n Acting on the advice of No Kill Advocacy Center founder Nathan Winograd that the initial Asilomar Accords draft failed to establish accurate criteria for accounting for the handling of feral cats,\u00a0 Michael Mountain withdrew Best Friends from the Asilomar Accords.<\/p>\n Then-San Francisco SPCA president Richard Avanzino, who was founding executive director of Maddie\u2019s Fund,\u00a0 Ed Duvin,\u00a0 and No Kill Directory founder Lynda Foro at the 1998 No Kill Conference.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n At that time there were already two widely recognized standards for \u201cno kill,\u201d\u00a0 apart from shelters simply declaring themselves to be such.\u00a0 One was the No Kill Directory\/No Kill Conference standard promulgated in 1995,\u00a0 which included that \u201cImplicit to the no-kill philosophy is the reality of exceptional situations in which euthanasia is the most humane alternative available.\u201d<\/p>\n A year later this statement was expanded to stipulate that, \u00a0\u201cThose exceptional situations include irrecoverable illness or injury, \u00a0dangerous behavior, \u00a0and\/or the need to decapitate an animal who has bitten someone, \u00a0in order to perform rabies testing. \u00a0They do not include \u2018unadoptable, \u00a0too young, \u00a0or too old,\u2019 \u00a0 or lack of space.\u201d<\/p>\n The other standard for \u201cno kill,\u201d\u00a0 now called the \u201cPCR,\u201d\u00a0 was the per capita euthanasia rate for whole communities,\u00a0 all shelters combined.\u00a0 The PCR recognizes that \u201cno kill\u201d shelters cannot by themselves serve the needs of an entire community,\u00a0 but can contribute to a low per capita euthanasia rate by providing spay\/neuter,\u00a0 adoption,\u00a0 and fostering services that animal control agencies often cannot.<\/p>\n Nathan Winograd.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gregory Castle brought Best Friends back into the Asilomar Accords after the Accords scrapped the nuances of the previous definitions in favor of the much more easily manipulated 90% \u201clive release rate,\u201d\u00a0 irrespective of which animals a shelter handles,\u00a0 under what circumstances.<\/p>\n Best Friends,\u00a0 the No Kill Advocacy Center,\u00a0 and Maddie\u2019s Fund then took the lead in pressuring tax-funded animal control shelters as well as nonprofit humane societies to pursue a 90% \u201clive release\u201d rate by whatever means possible.<\/p>\n Gregory Castle did issue three specific prescriptions for making Utah a no-kill state,\u00a0 Los Angeles a no-kill city,\u00a0 and finally,\u00a0 for making the U.S. as a whole \u201cno-kill\u201d by 2025:\u00a0 this year.<\/p>\n The Gregory Castle prescription sounded reasonable,\u00a0 but left dangerous loopholes.<\/p>\n The first part of it was \u201cReducing the number of cats and dogs going into the shelters in the first place, primarily through spay-neuter programs.\u201d\u00a0 This,\u00a0 unfortunately,\u00a0 opened the way to closing shelter doors to animals who might have to be euthanized.<\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (BFAS photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Second was,\u00a0 \u201cIntensive care for kittens born to feral community cats and brought into shelters by concerned people or animal control officers. \u00a0These kittens need, \u00a0in addition to spay\/neuter and vaccination services, \u00a0to be bottle-fed and socialized so that they\u2019re suitable for adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem there was,\u00a0 and is,\u00a0 that redefining cats at large as \u201ccommunity cats\u201d left no one responsible for them,\u00a0 encouraged \u201coutdoor pet-keeping\u201d without necessarily getting cats sterilized,\u00a0 normalized anonymous cat-feeding in problematic places,\u00a0 and opened the way to \u201creturn to field\u201d animal control,\u00a0 meaning dumping friendly cats found at large right back where they were found,\u00a0 instead of giving them a chance at owner reclaim or adoption.<\/p>\n (See San Diego cat control trial verdict & L.A. shelter fine expose \u201cno kill\u201d failures<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n Along the way,\u00a0 the \u201ccommunity cats\u201d definition exponentially escalated conflict between cat and bird advocates.<\/p>\n (See Feral cats poop where someone feeds them\u2013\u2013& that\u2019s the big problem.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n ANIMALS 24-7 <\/strong>pointed out the probable consequences of calling cats at large \u201ccommunity cats,\u201d\u00a0 instead of distinguishing between feral and stray cats,\u00a0 in a 2016 four-part series:\u00a0 What to call cats, \u00a0& why it matters: evolving terms<\/a>;\u00a0 \u201cVagrant\u201d or \u201cferal\u201d cats<\/a>; \u00a0Feral cats & street dogs<\/a>; \u00a0and\u00a0\u201cCommunity cats\u201d vs. community health<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Gregory Castle. (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Last and most damaging,\u00a0 Gregory Castle recommended \u201cWorking to overturn the undeserved reputation of pit bull terrier type dogs for aggression and showing them as the great pets they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Gregory Castle,\u00a0 continuing under Julie Castle,\u00a0 the Best Friends Animal Society made pit bull promotion a focal program,\u00a0 including funding efforts to repeal breed-specific legislation.<\/p>\n Twenty years later,\u00a0 U.S. pit bull fatalities have increased from eight in 2004,\u00a0 with 86 total in the preceding two decades,\u00a0 to 59 and 52 in each of the past two years,\u00a0 and 639 total since Gregory Castle\u2019s pro-pit bull decree,\u00a0 plus hundreds of other pit bull fatalities in other nations that did not previously have pit bull issues.<\/p>\n The number of pit bulls inflicting fatal and disfiguring injuries on humans in the U.S. is up from 79 in 2004 to 561 in 2024,\u00a0 and has topped 700 three times in the past 10 years.<\/p>\n Pit bull lobbyist Ledy Vankavage.<\/strong><\/em> The Best Friends Animal Society has succeeded in significantly increasing adoptions of pit bulls from animal shelters and rescues,\u00a0 but has not visibly slowed pit bull births,\u00a0 abandonments,\u00a0 impoundments,\u00a0 or owner surrenders.<\/p>\n Best Friends pit bull promotion has,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 significantly damaged the former reputation of animal shelters as the safest place for families to adopt a dog.<\/p>\n As of 2004,\u00a0 only three dogs adopted from animal shelters were known to have killed anyone in the 147 years since shelter adoptions began in the U.S.<\/p>\n More than 100 shelter dogs have participated in killing at least 59 people since then.\u00a0 Sixty-eight of those dogs were pit bulls and pit mixes.\u00a0 Twelve others were closely related \u201cbully breeds.\u201d<\/p>\n And about half of all dogs in animal shelters are pit bulls,\u00a0 half again more in 2024 than in 2004.\u00a0 Pit bulls still account for about two-thirds of all shelter dog euthanasias.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finally,\u00a0 the U.S. as a whole is still no closer to becoming a no-kill nation than it was in 2004,\u00a0 according to data gathered by Shelter Animals Count:\u00a0 see Best Friends\u2019 no-kill by 2025 goal is not just rolling over & playing dead<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Only if one goes by the highly suspect data gathered by Best Friends\u2019 own subsidiary Shelter Pet Data Alliance,\u00a0 a fraction the size of the Shelter Animals Count data base,\u00a0 can the Best Friends drive to make the U.S. no-kill be credited with making headway.<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0 Best Friends\u2019 efforts to enforce Gregory Castle\u2019s 2004 prescriptions,\u00a0 instead of emphasizing spay\/neuter without loopholes,\u00a0 open admission to animal shelters,\u00a0 and a \u201csafety first\u201d approach to handling pit bulls and other dangerous dogs,\u00a0 have become ever more coercive and manipulative.<\/p>\nGregory Castle was multi-talented & well-liked by all,\u00a0 but the Castle dynasty at Best Friends has been a disaster for dogs,\u00a0 cats,\u00a0 pit bull victims,\u00a0 spay\/neuter funding,\u00a0 and reaching realistic no-kill goals<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cMoral philosophy\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWatched for circling vultures\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cRare sense of humor\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nCrackpot cult<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cSpiritual & occult research\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDrifting to form Best Friends<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nAngel Canyon<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nJulie Castle<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMarriage<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nTransformed Best Friends<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nHurricane Katrina<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBonanza<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cStabilized the organization\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Best Friends Animal Society)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThe most responsible and reliable person I know\u201d?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDefinitions<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nAsilomar Accords<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nCats & kittens<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPushed pit bulls<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Best Friends Animal Society photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nPit bull advocacy has not really saved pit bulls or adopters<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nProgress toward \u201cno kill\u201d nationally has gone backward<\/h2>\n