National nonprofit teams up with local shelters, Walmart, Skechers, and 20+ brands to host adoption events and promotions nationwide that help pets in shelters

KANAB, Utah, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — It’s official, May is going to the dogs (and cats!). As the country sees the sharpest drop in U.S. animal shelter deaths in six years, leading national nonprofit organization Best Friends Animal Society is launching a nationwide effort during National Pet Month to help shelters sustain progress and save pets still in need of homes. This month-long campaign includes fee-waived adoption events and multi-day festivals, in-store promotions, register roundups, and a national conference for animal advocates.

While 68% of shelters are now considered no-kill*, which means saving every healthy and treatable pet in their care, adoption events and public support play a critical role in getting pets out of shelters and into loving homes. To make it easier for community members to get involved in saving pets’ lives, Best Friends will bring together a nationwide network of more than 20 corporate partners and 70 shelter and rescue groups to offer events and activations reaching residents in nearly all 50 U.S. states.

Here’s what Best Friends is bringing to communities from coast to coast this National Pet Month:

“Give Love. Save Lives.” Pet Adoption Events at Walmart
Event Details: This May, Best Friends and Walmart are bringing pet adoption events to 16 Walmart stores across the country. Pet lovers will have the opportunity to meet adoptable dogs and cats from Best Friends as well as local shelters, with all pet adoption fees waived. Attendees will also receive Best Friends swag, tips on how to help local homeless pets, and the chance to win a prize pack from leading pet brands valued at nearly $2,000, plus a chance to win a year’s supply of pet food from Blue Buffalo. No purchase necessary to enter.
Timing: Las Vegas, NV; Detroit, MI; Houston, TX; Miami, FL; Phoenix, AZ; Washington, DC (May 2); Austin, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Los Angeles, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Milwaukee, WI (May 16); Freehold, NJ; Richmond, VA; San Antonio, TX; St. Louis, MO (May 30)

Pawpalooza with Walmart & Best Friends
Event Details: Walmart and Best Friends are bringing pet lovers together for a fun, interactive experience at Pawpalooza, a series of four three-day events taking place around the country. Attendees can explore and sample pet food and treat options, create custom bandanas for pets, and discover ways to support their pets’ health and wellbeing. Each event will also feature opportunities for families to meet and connect with adoptable dogs and cats, with all pet adoption fees waived. Events will be hosted with support from Walmart’s leading pet brand partners.
Timing: Dallas, TX (May 8-10), Bentonville, AR (May 15-17), Nashville, TN (May 22-24), Atlanta, GA (May 29-31)

Community Adoption Events with BOBS from Skechers & Best Friends
Event Details: Best Friends is proud to renew its collaboration with Skechers, which is donating $500,000 to the nonprofit this year to support its goal to save the lives of pets in shelters. This partnership will be celebrated with a series of pet adoption events throughout the month at Skechers stores in Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Miami, and Clifton, NJ. Each event will bring adoptable dogs and cats from local shelters in the community front and center to help them find loving homes. Pet adoption fees at all events will be waived.
Timing: North Bergen, NJ (May 2), Centerville, UT (May 9), Pittsburgh, PA (May 16), Hialeah, FL (May 23)

Best Friends Animal Society National Conference
Event Details: Best Friends’ annual National Conference is returning to its home state of Utah, where Best Friends’ CEO Julie Castle will announce breaking news on progress for the no-kill movement. The conference will bring together animal welfare professionals and advocates from across the country to collaborate with the common goal of saving the lives of pets in shelters. Attendees will walk away with insights on the latest tools and data-driven techniques to immediately start saving more dogs and cats in their communities to help shelters reach or sustain no-kill.
Timing: Salt Lake City, UT (May 7-9)

For those unable to attend an event in person, Best Friends’ partners are offering even more ways to help save pets’ lives this May:

Sponsored Adoptions Thanks to Blue Buffalo and Walmart
Walmart is teaming up with Blue Buffalo and Best Friends to help customers expand their families while supporting shelters nationwide. For select bags of Blue Buffalo pet food or treats purchased at Walmart in May, Blue Buffalo will donate to Best Friends – up to $550,000. The funds will help cover pet adoption fees all month long at Best Friends locations nationwide, including Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Northwest Arkansas, Salt Lake City, and the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, UT.

More Ways to Save and Help with Participating Brands at Walmart
Additional participating pet supply brands at Walmart are stepping up to support homeless pets, including: Fresh Step, Capstar, Nutrish, Churu, Pedigree, Temptations, Purina, Lucky One Vodka Lemonade, PetArmor, Levoit, Nylabone, Comfort Zone, ADAMS Botanicals, Sulfodene, Fi, Spruce, and Dogsters. Select brands will have in-store features, where purchases of select goods will trigger a donation back to Best Friends. Walmart will also reduce the price on 3,500 pet items to help make pet ownership more affordable.

Shop to Support Pets with Blue Buffalo
Through May 29, Blue Buffalo shoppers can redeem their receipts from any retail location for cash back through the Ibotta app, and Blue Buffalo will donate $.30 to Best Friends, up to $250,000.

Skechers Register Roundup & Paws for a Cause Design Scholarship
Skechers‘ 600+ retail stores nationwide will host a month-long register roundup, inviting customers to contribute and help raise critical funds for Best Friends and its shelter and rescue group partners. Skechers will also announce the winners of its third Paws for a Cause Design Scholarship, an annual program that awards funds, mentors and produces the shoe designs of college students who share their personal stories with pets in need.

“From coast to coast, every person in every community has a role to play in saving pets’ lives,” says Julie Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society. “This National Pet Month, Best Friends and our incredible partners are giving everyone an opportunity to propel the country toward a day when no healthy, treatable pet is killed in a shelter simply because they don’t have a safe place to call home. We hope everyone will join us in changing the lives of homeless dogs and cats by adopting, fostering, volunteering, donating, and advocating this May and beyond.”

To learn more about all events and activations taking place during National Pet Month, please visit bestfriends.org/events.

*No-kill is defined by a 90% save rate for animals entering a shelter and is a meaningful and common-sense benchmark for measuring lifesaving progress. Typically, the number of pets who are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed is not more than 10% of all dogs and cats entering shelters. For any community to be no-kill, all stakeholders in that community must work together to achieve and sustain that common goal while prioritizing community safety and good quality of life for pets as guiding no-kill principles. This means cooperation among animal shelters, animal rescue groups, government agencies, community members and other stakeholders, all committed to best practices and protocols.

About Best Friends Animal Society
Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization dedicated to saving the lives of dogs and cats in America’s shelters and making the entire country no-kill. Founded in 1984, Best Friends runs lifesaving facilities and programs nationwide in partnership with more than 6,000 shelters and rescue organizations. From our headquarters in Kanab, Utah, we also operate the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary — a destination that brings our mission to life for thousands of visitors each year. We maintain the most comprehensive animal sheltering data in the country and make it accessible to the public — empowering communities with critical insights into the needs of their local shelters and how they can help. We believe every dog and cat deserves a home. And we believe that, by working together, we can Save Them All^®.

About BOBS^® from Skechers^®
BOBS from Skechers’ charitable collection of shoes, apparel and accessories have improved animals’ lives: over the past decade, Skechers has contributed more than $14 million to help over 2 million shelter pets, including saving more than 1.8 million rescued animals in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan. It all started in 2011, when Skechers launched a movement to support children impacted by natural disasters and poverty—donating more than 16 million new pairs of shoes to kids in more than 60 countries worldwide. To learn more about BOBS from Skechers’ commitment to making a difference, visit BOBSfromSkechers.com and follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram.

About Blue Buffalo
Blue Buffalo started with a promise made to a lovable Airedale named Blue who struggled with cancer, the #1 disease-related killer of dogs and cats. His family, the Bishops, wanted to feed him the best food possible, so they searched for food with high-quality ingredients, but decided to create something even better – natural pet food for dogs and cats with nutritious ingredients, real meat first, and some of the highest standards in the industry. Since Day 1, BLUE’s team of veterinarians and animal nutritionists have carefully selected high-quality, natural ingredients and upheld its True BLUE Promise to dog and cat pet parents – real meat as the first ingredient with NO chicken (or poultry) by-product meals, NO corn, wheat or soy, and NO artificial flavors or preservatives. The result is a portfolio of high-quality, natural food and treats that both dogs and cats love. This simple idea: “Love them like family. Feed them like family.” lives on today in every Blue Buffalo recipe. Visit BlueBuffalo.com to learn more.

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SOURCE Best Friends Animal Society