Allison Chinell

Allison was born and raised in a small town in Nebraska. She has been an animal lover as long as she can remember. Her parents taught her at a very young age to value and respect animals, both domesticated and wild. She considers this one of the most defining characteristics of her life. She moved to S.Carolina in 1998, where she first fell in love with the Lowcountry, and then her husband, whom she now shares two beautiful daughters with. Her fur family includes three weenie dogs, AJ Longfellow, Theodore Von Scruffinator, and Nigel Barker, a pittie mix named Matilda, and two kitties lovingly referred to as the grey gluttons. Since animals and their welfare has been a passion of hers her entire life, she decided to enter the Veterinary Technician program at Trident Technical College, which she graduated from in 2013. Toward the end of the program, she became employed at Best Friends Animal Clinic, where she continued to learn, and then ultimately passed her National Boards. She has recently transitioned into the position of the Office Manager and is enjoying learning a new aspect of the field. She considers herself lucky to be surrounded by so many supportive people, both at home and at work. She loves having a job she believes in. She also appreciates the connection with clients and the opportunity to help their best friends have a long and healthy life! In her spare time, she loves spending time with her animals, ‘playing’ in her kitchen or her garden, relaxing with friends by a fire, and all things Game of Thrones!

Gabrielle Treigle

Gaby grew up in southern Louisiana just north of New Orleans. She always had a wide array of pets as a child, from goats to ferrets and everything in between. After attending Mississippi State University, Go DAWGS, she moved to S.C. with her boyfriend of 4 years and two fur children. Brees is a 10-year-old chihuahua who loves to nap, and Ahsoka is a 5-year-old golden retriever who loves nothing more than her “Chuck It” balls. Gaby has been a veterinary technician for 5 years, beginning her career in a surgical specialty clinic. Her favorite thing to do at Best Friends is scrub in and assist our doctors with surgical procedures. Although she is fairly new to Best Friends, her hard work, dedication, and willingness to learn, quickly boosted her into the role of head technician, where she continues to thrive. When she isn’t caring for your fur babies, Gaby loves binge watching “The Office” and painting. We already have some of her artwork hanging on our wall, in memory of our much loved Charley Brown.


Kayla Griggs

Kayla grew up in the country outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her parents, younger brother, and numerous animals throughout the years- dogs, cats, horses, goats, and chickens. She spent her childhood and teenage years helping her mother care for their animals, as well as for her mother’s many wildlife rehabilitation patients. For as long as she can remember Kayla has had a deep, passionate love and understanding for all animals. Taking care of animals has pretty much been her job her whole life and she loves every minute of it. In 2012 she moved to Charleston, SC from Tennessee with her boyfriend (now fiancé) Dalton and their two dogs, Yeltsin (RIP, 9/11/2017) and Trotsky, and her childhood cat Cleo (RIP, 2/18/2018). They adopted their other cat Lil Beezy here in Charleston in 2013. For the past 6 years, she has been a valued volunteer staff member at the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw with the Education/Husbandry department, caring for their many raptors and handling their working birds for daily maintenance as well as for their educational programs and events. She began working with animals on a professional level at Exotic Vet Care in Mt. Pleasant as their kennel technician in 2014 for 2 years, then worked at a local dog boarding and daycare facility for the next 2 and a half years before coming to BFAC as a technicians assistant in July 2019. She is very excited and grateful to be with BFAC, where she truly loves her job and her coworkers.

Ginny Carey

Ginny was born and raised in New Jersey. After her first daughter was born, the family loaded up and moved to Alaska, and spent 28 years living the Snow Life. About 5 years ago, she decided to trade in her snow shovel for flip flops, and moved to S.C., and is now living the Salt Life. Ginny has two daughters that she loves dearly, but her heart and soul is her grandbabies. Ginny has loved animals as long as she can remember, Some of her earliest memories include running over to her Grandpa’s Hayride Business next door, and spending time with all the animals- including two rather large draft horses named King and Kate. Ginny has been a vet tech for approximately 20 years, dedicating a large portion of her life to the care of the animals who have made such great companions over the years. When she’s not working, you are likely to find her at the beach or cheering on the Bruins or Giants at her favorite sports bar. But her favorite thing of all (aside from spending time with her grandbabies) was spending time with the best golden retriever in the whole world, Charley Brown. She recently had to say her earthly goodbyes to him, but he holds a huge place in the heart as he watches over her from the Rainbow Bridge.

D’onna McFadden

D’onna was born and raised in S.C. Because of her deep love of animals, her family often predicted that she would grow up and work with animals. In early 2017, she proved them all right, and joined the team at Best Friends Animal Clinic. She has gotten education in both veterinary technology as well as physical therapy. She has thoroughly enjoyed the experience of learning about both human and animal anatomy and physiology. She is so passionate about both fields that she is still undecided where the future will take her, and continues to learn about both. Her great attitude, strong work ethic, and love for animals shows in her work, and we could not be happier to have her as part of our team. In her spare time, she loves watching and/or participating in sports, especially basketball and softball. She also enjoys spending time at the beach or out in nature, and of course, spending time with her sweet Christmas fur baby, Noel.

Sarina Irick

Sarina was born and raised in Summerville, SC, and has loved animals as long as she can remember. She started the Veterinary Technician Program at Trident Tech in January of 2018. Shortly after, she joined the staff at Best Friends Animal Clinic. She has shown great commitment to both learning as well as providing excellent care for our patients. She has 3 dogs of her own, Ida, Mia, and Daisy, as well as one rabbit named Abigail. When Sarina finds herself with extra time, outside of school and work, she enjoys knitting, baking, gardening, reading, and drawing.

Shelby Horton

Shelby was raised in TN on a farm, and developed her love for animals at a young age. In 2017, she moved to SC with her family. She returned to TN last year to rescue two Great Dane mixes, Daisy and Harley, who now live the life of luxury. Shelby has worked in a variety of different positions, but in February of 2021, she made the move to veterinary medicine where she quickly excelled from a tech assistant to a veterinary technician. Her eagerness to learn, great work ethic, and compassion for animals quickly endeared her to the BFAC team. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, snowboarding, and spending time with her husband, son, and the fur kids! We feel lucky to have her as part of our team, and look forward to watching her continue to grow in this field.