Background Information

The entire staff at Living Free Animal Sanctuary is excited to bring you this blog site about life at our cat and dog rescue facility.  We will also provide you with great information on pet care, training techniques, safety tips, and of course, updates on our latest rescues and adoptions.

If this is your first time hearing about Living Free, then it’s only appropriate that we give you a little background information about us. Living Free Animal Sanctuary is a non-profit (501c3), donation supported, ‘no kill’, cat and dog rescue. Our mission over the past 30 years is to rescue cats/kittens and dogs/puppies slated for euthanasia in local animal shelters   Founded in 1980, Living Free was born from the dreams of one special woman named Emily Jo Beard, who was heartsick at the increasing number of lovable cats and dogs being killed in shelters every day simply because of overcrowding. She purchased a very large parcel of land in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California, high above Palm Springs and Hemet, as the home for her new animal rescue sanctuary.  State-of-the-Art kennels and a large cattery were erected on the site. Today they house, on average, over 100 cats and dogs awaiting adoption to new forever families. Unfortunately Emily Jo passed away in 1989, but not before she was able to see her dream come true. Her vision and legacy live on as a driving force to us all – the saving of one precious life at a time.

At Living Free we do not believe in caging our animals. In fact, our cattery is designed with large open rooms where the cats can roam freely, as they would in a normal home environment, with big mesh enclosed outdoor patio areas for basking in the sun and watching the birds and squirrels in the surrounding trees. Our kennel has large outdoor runs with huge play structures where a maximum of three dogs per run have plenty of room to romp and play.

We have standing arrangements with many of the surrounding state and county animal shelters; as space is freed up through adoptions and funds are available from donations, we select our rescues from those cats and dogs whose time has all but run out and are now slated for euthanasia. Once rescued, the cats and dogs are immediately placed in our quarantine facility where they are given a thorough examination by our veterinarian, a number of health screening tests, all vaccinations are brought up-to-date, and they are spayed or neutered if they haven’t been already. Quarantine is roughly a three-week period before a cat or dog is given a clean bill of health by our vet and becomes available for adoption.

Our goal is to see every cat and dog we rescue adopted into a new loving home because we’re then able to return to the shelters and do another rescue.  The more we place into adopted homes, the more we’re able to save.  As mentioned earlier, Living Free is also a ‘no-kill’ sanctuary where a rescued cat or dog that does not get adopted, for whatever reason, will live out the rest of its life at Living Free. We do not euthanize, except in extremely rare cases where an animal is terminally ill and it’s in the animal’s best interest to relieve pain and suffering.

Living Free does not accept abandoned, strays, or owner-relinquished pets from the public, as mandated in our corporate charter.  We constantly receive phone calls from people trying to find a home for a cat or dog, and believe us, we’d love to help each and every one of them, but due to space availability and funding it is virtually impossible. Therefore, we must stand true to our mission of saving those cats and dogs whose time has run out and are facing euthanasia, through no fault of their own. We do, however, provide referral listings of animal rescue facilities for all counties in Southern California that do accept owner relinquished pets.  Our referral line is 951-659-4684.

Our staff includes 13 full-time employees and a large volunteer group, all of whom are passionate about our cause and give their utmost attention to the overall health and well being of our animals. Three of our senior staff also live on the property, so our resident cats and dogs have someone available 24/7 and 365 days a year. As an employee or volunteer at Living Free you could not ask for a more rewarding experience than saving the life of a loving cat or dog and then seeing it leave our facility as a companion for a wonderful family.

So there you have it – the background of Living Free in a nutshell.