Shelter Friends Inc.

Shelter Friends, Inc., is a fundraising and networking group that does whatever it takes to save an animal's life. Our main mission is fundraising to pay vet bills for sick or injured animals that would otherwise die without our help. We have paid vet bills throughout the Midwest, from Iowa to Texas and all states in-between, but our main focus is on animals in Missouri and Illinois. In 2024, we paid out over $240,000 in vet bills for sick, dying or injured animals, and for spays and neuters. Spaying and neutering is also a main focus at Shelter Friends, Inc., in that it is our strongest belief that stopping unwanted births is the only way out of the crisis that the animal world is in at this moment. 

We also work directly with shelters and owners to help place as many animals as we can in no-kill rescue groups and to aid in their adoptions. We also raise money to pay for ordinary vetting costs or any extraordinary veterinary care of these animals. We also help trap missing or stray cats and dogs and help them get to their appropriate shelters and pay for their ordinary vetting or extraordinary veterinary costs. This helps our rescue group partners by cutting down on their costs and helping them take in more animals.

We rescue all animals: Dogs, cats, ducks, geese, rabbits, turtles, etc. Our volunteers go out in the field and do hands-on work. We are the only group in the area that rescue waterfowl. 

In August of 2014 we instituted our barn-cat program and in August of 2015 we were successful in getting a TNR ordinance passed in the city of St. Charles, allowing more feral cats to be saved.

It is our goal for 2025 to save even more animals!

Shelter Friends is run strictly by volunteers. Our administrative costs are less than 2%. That means that for every dollar donated over 98 cents goes directly to the animals!