Best Friends is coming to Arkansas
PET RESOURCE CENTER WILL BE A SHELTER LIKE NO OTHER
First there was Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, then New York, Atlanta and Houston. Now Best Friends is expanding — yet again — with a brand-new, stateof-the-art center in Bentonville, Arkansas. Through a unique partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, the Best Friends Pet Resource Center will be the first (but certainly not the last) of a new breed of operations. It will provide services and support for pets and their families over the course of their lives together — not just after they have run into difficulties or need a new home.
Serving all of northwest Arkansas, the vibrant space will improve lives by aligning with Bentonville’s and northwest Arkansas’ legacy of communities that pursue bold, innovative solutions — setting the region apart locally and nationally. With the opening planned for 2021, the center is being designed from scratch. It will encompass an estimated 20,000 square feet and will be built near a park on Bentonville’s 8th Street corridor, a gateway to surrounding urban and natural amenities.
We’re not waiting for the new facility to be built, however, before we get to work. In fact, Best Friends has been on the ground in Arkansas for three years, leading the Northwest Arkansas Partnership for Animal Welfare (NWA PAW) coalition. The group comprises 25 animal welfare agencies with a mission to create and sustain no-kill communities in that part of the state. In 2019, we began hiring staff and setting up programs to serve pets in the area right away, ranging from holding pop-up cat adoption events to buying a transport van to constructing a temporary cat lifesaving center. We’re already saving lives in Bentonville and can’t wait to share more good news soon. No matter where you live, shelters need your help to get to no-kill. Find out how we’re helping and how you can get involved to save lives. bestfriends.org/2025
The center will provide services and support for pets and their families over the course of their lives together.