Thirty years after it started as a small neighborhood dog walk, Strut Your Mutt came home. The fundraiser returned to Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., bringing dog owners and their pets back to the same patch of ground where the event got its start.
Best Friends Animal Society says the walk returned to the place where it all began, according to bestfriends.org. The nonprofit says Strut Your Mutt has raised more than $13.7 million for animals over the past 30 years, and that the event has since expanded well beyond Utah, having been held in 17 cities along with a virtual fundraising option for people who can't make it to a physical walk.
From a Local Walk to a National Fundraiser
The event didn't start big. Best Friends Animal Society launched it as a small dog walk in its home state back in 1995, the organization notes on its site describing the cities preparing for Strut Your Mutt events. What began as a modest community gathering grew into what the group describes as a national, multimillion-dollar fundraiser benefiting hundreds of shelters and rescue groups around the country, per the same page.
The structure has stayed simple even as the scale has grown. Every Strut Your Mutt participant chooses to support either Best Friends directly or a favorite participating animal welfare organization, according to bestfriends.org. Money raised through the walk goes toward saving homeless pets through spay/neuter programs, adoption events, foster programs, veterinary care and lifesaving transports, the organization says.
Saturday's Walk, Three Decades Later
This year's gathering was scheduled for Liberty Park, according to recreation.utah.gov, the same city park where previous years' walks have taken place. As KSL News reported, the event marked its 30th anniversary walk back at its original location.
Prior Salt Lake City editions of the walk give a sense of scale. In 2024, the 27th annual fundraiser brought around 1,500 people to Liberty Park to walk their dogs, KSL.com reported at the time. That year's local fundraiser brought in up to $55,164, according to figures on the Best Friends Animal Society website cited in that report.
Why the Walk Still Matters in Utah
Best Friends Animal Society CEO Julie Castle has pointed to the organization's broader no-kill push in Utah as context for events like this one. Speaking in 2024, Castle said the number of animals dying annually in Utah had fallen from 45,000 when she began working there to 1,600, per KSL.com's report. She also said Utah had 59 shelters at the time, with 11 still needing to reach no-kill status.
The fundraiser's growth beyond Utah has been dramatic by Best Friends' own numbers. A historical page from the organization described a nationwide fundraising goal of $2 million across 240 local animal shelters and rescue groups in one year, compared with $1.3 million raised for roughly 180 groups the year before, according to bestfriends.org's account of cities preparing for Strut Your Mutt events.
Thirty years on, the walk's return to Liberty Park closes a loop for an event that started small and now spans the country. The money raised Saturday, like in years past, will flow toward spay/neuter programs, adoptions, foster care, veterinary services and transport efforts aimed at getting homeless pets into homes.
