Best Friends Animal Society has partnered with Jill Rappaport, an award-winning animal advocate, best-selling author, journalist, and podcast host, on her digital series that highlights underdogs, including senior, special-needs, and harder-to-place pets waiting for their forever families.
“I’ve always been about the underdogs, the bully breeds, and the special needs. I realized right from the very beginning when I started doing all of my animal welfare work. That’s the group that’s occupying the cages nationwide; those are the animals left languishing in shelters,” said Jill.
Jill launched her Home for the Holidays campaign two years ago to help those specific groups. “To date, I’ve gotten over 45 underdogs a home,” she said. “And I knew in my heart that this was a campaign that I wanted to continue forever because those are the animals that will always have a more difficult time.”
Best Friends, which has a location in SoHo, is a prominent animal welfare organization committed to saving the lives of dogs and cats in shelters across the United States and working towards a no-kill nation. Established in 1984, Best Friends operates lifesaving facilities and programs nationwide in collaboration with over 5,500 shelters and rescue groups.
In continuing the campaign this holiday season, Jill said, “I was fortunate enough to make the connection with Best Friends. Julie Castle, the co-founder and the CEO, is truly one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever met.”
“You know, their motto is ‘save them all,’” she continued. “And that’s how I, in my heart, have always felt. I have always wanted to save them all. So, after interviewing Julie, I thought this is the perfect organization to do this campaign with. Their dedication, their devotion to these animals, is truly awe-inspiring. And I just feel so honored to be able to do a campaign that has been so important to me.”
The Best Friend’s campaign, A Home for the Holidays with Jill Rappaport, began on November 3 and will delight audiences throughout the holiday season. It features weekly videos and touching stories of adoptable pets from the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in SoHo, shared across both Best Friends and Rappaport’s social media channels.
“Every pet deserves a family, but some wait far too long simply because they are passed over,” said Jill.
Jill recently adopted a 14-year-old dachshund from the Southampton Animal Shelter, a senior pet who was sight-impaired and completely deaf. She named him Nathan Detroit. “Nathan for Nathan’s Hot Dogs, and Detroit for home hometown, plus I love ‘Guys and Dolls’,” she said.
Nathan had severe dental disease, a heart murmur, and went into kidney failure. “I knew when I took him it was going to be a little bit of a challenge, but I can tell you, he is aging backwards. He has so much energy, so much love, so much life. I just adore him. I try to send the message to people that the senior animals are truly the greatest gift… And they’d rather sleep on the couch than chew on it.”
“We’re so grateful to Jill for using her platform to highlight the dogs and cats who are too often overlooked,” said Julie Castle, the CEO of Best Friends Animal Society. “These pets have so much love to give, and this series will help make that connection, helping turn awareness into lifesaving action.”
So far, Jill has a 100 percent adoption rate with the campaign. Each week, viewers are introduced to an adoptable pet from Best Friends, learning about their unique personality and ways people can open their hearts and homes this holiday season.
“The thought of an animal, a dog or cat, sitting in a cage in a shelter, no matter how wonderful it is, is truly heartbreaking. But especially at holiday time,” said Jill. But the campaign won’t stop when the holidays are over. “Just because the calendar says January 1, 2026, my work is not done,” she explained. “I will continue with whatever it takes to make sure that every one of the dogs and cats I’ve featured is placed in a forever home.”
Helping with the cat adoptions is Deborah Cribbs, a national voice for feline welfare and the founder and leader of the Give Them Ten Movement, which aims to save cat lives. “I love coming to a well-run shelter, and this is a well-run shelter,” said Deborah. “There are so many cats just looking for their forever home.”
According to Best Friends, two out of three shelters nationwide have achieved no-kill status. Increasing visibility and helping every healthy and treatable pet find a loving home, including underdogs, is a crucial step to ending the killing of dogs and cats in shelters. No-kill is defined as a 90 percent save rate for animals entering a shelter and serves as a meaningful, common-sense benchmark for measuring lifesaving progress. Usually, the number of pets suffering from incurable medical or behavioral issues that affect their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed is no more than 10 percent of all dogs and cats entering shelters.
“Best Friends Animal Society is really leading the way to end the killing of dogs and cats in American shelters and find loving homes for every dog and cat we can,” said Marlan Roberts, Executive Director of Best Friends Animal Society’s New York City Life Saving Center.
“We’re so excited to work with Jill to highlight the underdogs — dogs and cats that have been in the shelter and have been looking for a loving home for an extended period of time. This is what it takes to find those unique homes for those unique animals,” Marlan continued.
In 2027, Best Friends will open a new Lifesaving Center in Oyster Bay, Long Island, expanding its reach to help more animals. “We’ll be able to do all of our medical care internally. We’ll be able to expand the amount of dogs and cats we can house, which will then filter directly here to SoHo. SoHo will become an adoption-ready center, so only dogs and cats that are ready to be adopted will be housed at this center,” said Marlan.
To learn more about the pets featured in the campaign or how to adopt, foster, or get involved, visit bestfriends.org.
