The Cult of America’s Largest Animal Rescue

Hi,

Best Friends is America’s largest animal rescue organisation. 

The non-profit 501(c)(3) is masterful at fundraising, bringing in an estimated $100 million each year. Celebrity endorsements from the likes of Mark Wahlberg help keep the money flowing in, as does Dog Town, the Nat Geo series filmed at its Utah headquarters.

Best Friends – full name ‘The Best Friends Animal Society’ – takes a particularly hardline ‘No Kill’ stance, partnering with shelters in all 50 US States to work towards its main goal of ending all death in US animal shelters. 

It’s an admirable goal, driven by an organisation that has an almost cult-like belief in the importance of animals. Which perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that Best Friends began as a bonafide cult.

I’ve been working on this story, on and off, for the last year and a half. Over that time, I’ve spoken to numerous current and former Best Friends volunteers and employees, trying to understand the culture at Best Friends. Nearly all of them refused to go on the record, alleging they were tied up in NDAs and worried about legal repercussions.

“I'm still not comfortable talking about it,” was a common refrain. The thing is, I wasn’t particularly interested in any current drama at Best Friends. Any organisation pulling in $100 million each year is bound to have elements of discontent within its ranks.

Also: I support the goals of Best Friends. I don’t want any cats, dogs or other animals to die if they can find an adopted home.

But the concern these people expressed ultimately led me to where this piece landed: examining the origin story of Best Friends. And it gets pretty weird, and – at times – dark.

Jared vs The Process Church Of The Final Judgement 

Jared was born in Chicago in 1975. His parents had been born Bruce and Catherine, but by the time Jared came onto the scene, they were known as ‘Magdalene’ and ‘Enoch’.

“My mother had been an early American recruit, and my father had been a more recent American recruit from Boston. Their union was – how do they say it? – ‘Blessed and ordained’ by the main leader. And so they got together, and had me.” 

Back in the 70s, Jared’s parents were members of The Process Church Of The Final Judgement (also known as ‘The Process’). The Process was founded in the sixties by British occultist Robert de Grimston and his wife Mary Ann MacLean. 

Both Robert and Mary Ann were former Scientologists, eventually breaking away with their own ideas about life and spirituality – and their own need for power and control. 

The Process believed there were four separate deities – Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ – and you could pick which one you most identified with. They had their own rituals, prayers and even hymns like “Christ and Satan Joined in Unity.”

During the late 60s and early 70s, the British cult wormed its way into the United States – recruiting Americans all across the country who were partially wooed in by both the accent, and the group’s counter-culture ideas. They taught that the family unit was obsolete, and could be disrupted and deconstructed. 

The cult stood out wherever they went – from San Francisco to Mexico. They wore black robes with velvet linings, and hung large ornate crosses around their necks. They also caught attention for the animals they tended to travel with: big dogs, including German Shepherds.

Rumours spread that they were involved in ritualistic murder – and by the time the Manson killings happened, prosecutors alleged there were links between Charles Manson and The Process. These rumours were never substantiated – but weren’t helped by the fact Manson told the main prosecutor that he and Robert de Grimston were “one and the same".

Members of The Process lived a fairly nomadic life, but set up their main chapter in Chicago in 1972. 

Mary Ann split from her husband and co-cult leader after discovering he’d had an affair. Those close to the pair say it was a “bitter” divorce. Afterwards, Mary Ann took over The Process, choosing to focus less on Satan and more on Jesus, and by the time 1980 came around – when Jared was about six years old – the cult had been renamed The Foundation Faith of God (‘The Foundation’).

For Jared, the elements of this backstory were either unknown or incredibly murky at the time.

“We were coached to say, ‘We're just a youth group. We are a non-denomination Christian sect’ – and that was it. Their beliefs seemed to be: The world is broken. This is the only place you're gonna find any real meaningful purpose. Everything else is just going to continue to be broken, and have no hope for anything. 

And we need to do everything we can to please the leader – a guy named Gabriel.”

Gabriel de Peyer had taken the place of Mary Ann’s ex-husband Robert de Grimston in leading the cult in the US.

And the two of them had big plans.