Best Friends Animal Society, the only national animal welfare organization dedicated exclusively to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters, is coming together with Atlanta Pet Rescue and Adoption in order to save even more lives in the southeastern United States. As of October 1, APRA will be known as Best Friends - Atlanta.

“Best Friends strategic plan includes developing regional centers in key communities around the country,” said Gregory Castle, CEO and co-founder of Best Friends Animal Society. “It is important that Best Friends have a presence in the area to help metro Atlanta in it’s final push to no-kill and for us to set up a base of operation to develop a regional coalition that will help to achieve No Kill in the southeast and around the entire country.”

Best Friends - Atlanta will prioritize the adoption of at-risk animals from the city shelters in Cobb, Gwinnett, Dekalb and Fulton counties while also developing a local coalition model like that of its programs in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and coming to New York in the fall of 2016.

“We have saved more than 19,000 lives in the region and have always been philosophically and programmatically aligned with Best Friends mission,” said APRA spokesperson. “We are really excited to become Best Friends - Atlanta to save even more lives and model what is possible for other communities.“

Best Friends has been working in the region since 2004 when it began collaborating with Lifeline Animal Project. In 2011, Best Friends began a partnership with Dekalb County Animal Services and LifeLine Animal Project to save community cats being killed in the County shelter. In February of 2016 Best Friends launched a community cat program with Cobb County Animal Control that has sustained a save rate of 90% (up from 50-60% for the same period in 2015). Additionally, Best Friends has 59 network partner organizations in Georgia (23 of them in greater Atlanta) and as of July 2016, have given $111,000 in grants to Atlanta animal welfare organizations.