Did an AA member kill your dog? That aside...
If they were truly your friends, you would steer them towards alternatives that work.
There are no "alternatives that work". AA and the alternatives all have low success rates. Additionally, what works for one may not work for another. I wouldn't go so far as to call the rehabilitation industry a scam, but there sure is money to be made despite low success rates across the board.
I wish 30 days at a Malibu treatment center would be guaranteed to work. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Instead I went the AA route. Did the cultish aspects work their magic? Nah, I mostly ignored that. Maybe it's just regularly showing up someplace with like folk. I do wonder what AA's success rate would be if the only ones that showed up were willing. I've been to AA meetings where I was the only person that didn't have to get a slip signed.