The Best Friends rapid response team is in action again – this time at a New York sanctuary in distress.
Helping Pets Alive is dedicated to the urgent needs of more than 500 animals living at the Pets Alive sanctuary in Middletown, New York. There are dogs and cats, retired carriage horses, farm animals, exotic birds and many others.

The founder and director of Pets Alive, Sara Whalen, died in March of this year after a long illness. She’d cared for the animals for more than 25 years, but sadly, things had gone downhill over the last couple of years. Sara had hidden a lot about her illness and how long it had been going on. Even her board didn’t know the extent of it all. She hadn’t been able to give the animals the care they needed, especially through the cold winter we’ve just had, and a lot of things had gotten really out of hand.

Over the last few weeks, Best Friends has brought in an emergency team, and the board of Pets Alive has offer