A Dozen Shelters Unite to Fight Cruelty- NW Arkansas Animal Alliance
Updated: Aug 22, 2025
Finally making a change
Like many others, communities in Northwest Arkansas are seeing a rise of abandonment and cruelty. Because of this, thirteen shelters, humane societies, and rescues have formed a coalition to fight this crisis head on -and they have a good plan. But, with dog packs on the street and overflowing shelters, Best Friends has stepped in to lend their large hand in filtering out animals into loving homes.
What's really going on?
In the last decade, shelters in Northwest Arkansas have required major expansions to their shelters with even more facilities being built to accommodate the mass overflow. Due to the lack of spay/neuter laws, community members continue to surrender -or even abandon- litters at the shelters and on the streets. Many of the animals are moved to the partner facility at Best Friends who have greater resources to home a larger number of animals.
In Hot Springs, earlier this year, the on-call ACO received four calls resulting in five dogs entering the shelter all in the same day. Also the same day, three puppies and six kittens were surrendered. Clearly, there are too many animals in the area and not enough people willing or able to take them in. So, what are they supposed to do with all of these animals?
What's even worse, just a month ago a member at the Hot Springs shelter reported nineteen dogs arriving in one day -eleven of which are puppies that took up the last kennel run. One of the dogs was hit by a car and left to die alone. The shelter claims the reason is dumping: people are abandoning their animals out on the street for animal control to be called so the shelters can deal with the aftermath.
And these aren’t isolated cases -situations exactly like this are happening almost weekly in Hot Springs. If you explore the Hot Springs Animal Services Facebook page, you can see what I’m talking about. Spay/neuter requirements would limit if not eliminate the chances of mass dumping.
They had a turnaround this past weekend though, despite eight dogs coming in -one dead- on top of a cruelty case and the surrender of two kittens. Fortunately, they had two adoptions and a local humane society transferred out some others. In addition a long-term resident found his forever home and one of their puppies went home with an established foster.
And the best part: a couple drove three hours to adopt six dogs and six cats to give them a new life on their 3,000 acre farm. So, these guys will have plenty of time to redeem their days spent in the shelter.
In many areas, there are so many dogs roaming around that they’ve begun to form packs -likely for survival. On the Arkansas Animal Alliance Facebook page, one community member posted a video of about eight dogs just living their lives on the side of the road. Realistically, no one has the ability to bring eight dogs into their house where they probably already have more dogs than they can handle.
Some areas report dog packs such as this chasing and attacking people.
Besides this being a horrific situation for innocent lives, dog packs can be dangerous for obvious reasons, such as aggressive behaviors or protective instincts. If these dogs feel threatened, it would be quite easy for a whole pack to take down a few people, so are city officials going to wait for this to happen before they step in?
Apparently, yes, they are. On June 11 this year, a young girl, Makayla Fortner, unfortunately lost her life attempting to clean up what the government turned their nose up to. So, is it worth it now?
Getting into the details of Makayla’s death is tricky as there was a flood of misinformation in the beginning. However, Southern Hearts Rescue was directly involved in removing the dogs and has provided a statement clarifying the known information.
So, after reading their Facebook post on June 14, we know that there were 13, possibly 14, dogs at the scene that day, all of which were removed to be euthanized. In addition, there were three dogs that Makayla’s mom had requested to be rescued on behalf of her -plus four inside personal dogs that were left on the property. This makes 20 or 21 dogs, so the media reporting 40 dogs is false, but it’s easy to over-count animals when they’re all standing together.
It was originally led to believe that Makayla’s family were unintentional hoarders -typically people living at the end of a secluded road who see animals dumped and are either forced to watch them slowly starve to death or take them in. But, according to neighbors, they brought all these animals to their house themselves and allowed them to run loose, breed, and even attack each other in the yard.
This obviously means they are partially responsible in this situation. Law enforcement had been notified in the past, but no one knows if any action was taken, which is why this case is so big for the community. As tragic as this attack is, it’s really not surprising and many people in this state agree. It could have been anyone, like Southern Hearts says.
Some areas don’t even have an AC, which would require law enforcement to step in when dangerous animals are present at a scene. But, they normally don’t have the guidelines or equipment to deal with animals like this, so they call local rescues. And since every rescue and shelter are beyond capacity, they are incapable of helping.
These animals don’t just go away, though, they’re still alive and roaming around -forgotten about. This is how dog attacks such as Makayla’s case happen. Southern Hearts shared a story that plainly illustrates how helpless rescues in Northwest Arkansas are right now:
“[Jenny] had to go into a hoarding house alone (and with volunteers) but not the police or animal control (who were outside) and literally no one could hear her screaming for help. If that is not a metaphor for the out of control animal issues in Arkansas I don’t know what is. We are screaming from the top of our lungs for help and government is standing outside the fence, letting us handle the situation, and ignorant to our screams, and not lifting a finger to help.” -Southern Hearts Rescue
A GoFundMe page was set up by a close family friend to assist in funeral costs and other expenses, so if you would like to donate, please do:
This attack prompted Saline County to hold a town hall meeting to discuss the lack of animal control or spay/neuter laws, and the construction of an animal shelter in the county. Of course, the county says that “resources are already stretched thin, and there’s about to be even less room in the budget.”
To be honest, it doesn’t seem like the government will make any movement in the animal welfare crisis. It’s turned into a human crisis -a community crisis. All we can do is support this community and pray.
The Animal Alliance
Situations like these are the reason over a dozen shelters have established a coalition network to make movement on local animal laws. The Northwest Arkansas Animal Alliance is pushing for stricter sterilization requirements for every pet so that unwanted litter numbers can be reduced. Big Paws of the Ozarks reported that 3,323 puppies and kittens were brought into NW Arkansas shelters and rescues in 2024 alone. With countless low cost sterilization clinics available this could’ve been prevented.
Establishing and enforcing spaying and neutering your pets should be standard in every county, and with such a disgusting number of unwanted litters it should be a no-brainer for communities in Northwest Arkansas.
Who is Best Friends?
Best Friends is an animal sanctuary founded back in the 80s which is now partnered with thousands of shelters, rescues and humane societies across the country. The Northwest Arkansas resource center, located in Bentonville, allows community members to volunteer, foster, and adopt.
Since opening just two years ago, the Bentonville center has been able to adopt out 6,444 cats and dogs to loving homes. They’ve been able to treat 12,124 cats and dogs in the vet clinic, administering 14,110 vaccines and sterilizing 7,307 cats and dogs. In addition, they’ve given out 3,306 microchips to pets in the area.
Best Friends of Bentonville offers free microchips and vaccines weekly, along with low cost sterilization services as well as a pet food pantry. They also know how hard it is for owners to deal with their pet’s behavioral challenges so they offer behavior classes and pet retention resources, ensuring pets are only surrendered as a last resort.
Looking to the future
Northwest Arkansas is in a rough situation with abandoned dogs forming packs and every other one falling pregnant. But with the hard work of the animal alliance and Best Friends, there’s hope that they can clean up the community for the animals that live there.
If you’re interested, you can donate to the Northwest Arkansas Animal Alliance here:
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