I am honored to have been invited by Gabby from the travel blog Do More Be More to contribute a guest post about Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. As a fellow traveler, photographer, and dog lover, she was curious about our lifestyle and interested in our volunteering experiences. 

Gabby lives in beautiful and diverse Australia and has an adorable bulldog. In 2010, she hooked up with the Bali Animal Welfare Association to photograph and fund raise for the street dogs of Bali, Indonesia. She believes that many small acts by conscientious travelers can change the landscape of tourism for the future – and for the better – and is always on the lookout for ways we travelers can give back to the world we enjoy so much.

Comments are closed here, but feel free to share your thoughts on Gabby’s blog.

Volunteering at the Biggest No-kill Animal Sanctuary in the US: Best Friends in Utah

As the fur-less mum of an old lady bulldog and a supporter of street dog welfare in Bali, I was excited to talk to Liesbet Collaert, a fellow animal lover, about her experience volunteering at Best Friends in Utah.

I know from first hand experience that volunteers at any animal welfare organisation is hugely appreciated. There is never enough funding and there is always too much to do. Every spare hand is another step closer to better health or permanent homes for the dogs, cats and everything in between.

The best thing about volunteering, is that anyone can do it! You don’t need a qualification in most cases, just a big heart.

This was Liesbet’s first volunteering opportunity, one very close to her own heart.

Liesbet tell us a little about yourself and your travels.

I was born in Belgium with an oversized portion of wanderlust. Yearly family vacations to the Med didn’t satisfy my sense for adventure, so, at 16, I hitchhiked to Italy with a boyfriend.

In college, I traveled across Europe during holidays and avoided culture shock on a five-week trip to India. After graduation, I grabbed my backpack and explored Southeast Asia with friends for about a year. Two years later I headed back to SE Asia with a hop-over to New Zealand and Australia.

Then, I taught at the same school in Belgium once more, for two years, before I flew across the Atlantic Ocean for an open-ended journey in an RV with my then American boyfriend. I’d met him Down Under. Fate has a funny way, as I never moved back to Belgium after our 18-month-long travels throughout the lower 48, Canada, and Alaska.

Instead, I met another guy, obtained another truck camper, and adventured throughout Mexico and Central America with him and his two rescue dogs. This was preceded by a failed sailing attempt of ten months and followed by a two-month stint in a tent and a Toyota Tacoma. In 2007, we bought a 35ft sailing catamaran in Maryland and cruised down to Florida, before crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. The idea was to return in a year, but, eight years later, we found ourselves in Tahiti, in the Pacific Ocean.

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