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Animal Advocacy

Chelsea Eng has been a vegetarian for over 30 years and is a longtime animal advocate. From 2016-2019 she volunteered weekly as a co-caretaker (with a small group called Team Rabbit) of Mocha and Hobo, 2 beloved bunnies who lived at a senior assisted living facility in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 2016 she has made 6 volunteer visits to Best Friends Animal Society's animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, volunteered for 2 Best Friends Strut Your Mutt events in San Francisco, volunteered at the Best Friends SoHo Center in New York City, and attended the 2017 Best Friends National Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey - joining the "Save Them All" movement to get the U.S. to No-Kill for cats and dogs by 2025. In 2018 and 2019 she served as an Outreach Ambassador for NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles), a Best Friends Animal Society Initiative, at the 1st and 2nd International Tango Summits/Los Angeles, for which she created (together with Maurice Liang and Max Masri) an award-winning promotional video ("Hop-a-Longa") featuring a rescued rabbit. Chelsea's animal-related writing has been published nationally in print and online by House Rabbit Journal, Small Pet Select, and Best Friends Animal Society's Sanctuary Stories; and internationally in the Spring 2021 print issue of Best4Bunny magazine, based in the United Kingdom. Chelsea is a fan and supporter of California's Paws for Life K9 Rescue, a prison-based dog training program.

$5 from each private lesson taught by Chelsea is donated to animal rescue/advocacy-related efforts &/or helps fund her volunteering trips to Best Friends Animal Society's animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah 

"Animal-Loving Tango Dancer: My story: Best Friends volunteer Chelsea Eng"

published July 2018, Best Friends Animal Society's Sanctuary Stories (online)

"From Grief to Grace"

published Spring 2021, Best4Bunny magazine (print); April 2018, Small Pet Select (online); and Winter 2016, House Rabbit Journal (print)

A beautiful quote by Best Friends CEO, Julie Castle (BF magazine, March/April 2020): 

"A home-between-homes, a safe haven, a place of healing - words to describe what Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is for the animals. And rightfully so. But what the Sanctuary has become for the people who visit, volunteer and work here is, in many ways, something more significant. It's a place of refuge, safety and healing for us. Its magic captures the hearts of all who visit. It's a place where compassion and community flourish, and the bond between people and pets is celebrated. 

A reality in which dogs and cats are killed in shelters simply because they don't have safe places to call home takes a toll on our animal-loving hearts. That's why experiencing a place like Best Friends feels so life-changing. It's a break from a hard reality - a balm for our souls. We cherish and nurture this place of refuge even as we continue to extend our work beyond the Sanctuary."

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