For 64 years the Arizona Humane Society has operated in an aging facility in north Phoenix. Construction will begin on a new $46 million campus next month.
The new two-story 72,000-square-foot Papago Park campus features a medical complex and veterinary teaching hospital. The campus will provide medical and trauma care, behavior rehabilitation, rescue and cruelty investigations, adoption resources and education programs.
Dr. Steven Hansen, the president and CEO of the Arizona Humane Society, is breaking ground with the facility near Van Buren and 55th streets because it will be a critical turning point for homeless animals in Maricopa County.
“This campus will absolutely save more animals. It will substantially increase the reach of the Arizona Humane Society. Our Sunnyslope campus has very limited capability,” said Hansen
AHS decided to build a new facility because their trauma hospital in Sunnyslope was never designed as an actual hospital. The Sunnyslope campus wasn’t able to manage disease and treat many animals that needed to be treated.
Hansen says other shelters will be able to send animals to the new Papago Park campus. The new medical complex is designed to help homeless animals and families in need.
The way the building is designed, it will have nice separation of species. Visitors can spend time with the dogs and watch behavior programs. People looking to adopt can go into a separate room to get acquainted with the dog and they’ll be able to take the dog on a walk in a park.
The dogs will also have high quality outdoor play areas to make sure they can get outside.
According to Hansen, the cats will be located on the second floor of the adoption building and the second floor of the hospital. These buildings will contain “catios.” It will be an indoor and outdoor area, where cats can go from a normal inside kennel to a screened in porch.
This will give the cats fresh air and reduce their stress. It helps them remain happy and healthy so AHS can place them into good homes.
The Papago Park campus will also be a teaching hospital. AHS is partnering with the University of Arizona veterinary teaching program.
New veterinary students will cycle through various programs at the facility including the trauma hospital, cruelty investigation program, behavior program and enrichment program.
There will also be various volunteer opportunities.
AHS is very excited and will break ground on the Papago Park campus in November and the campus will open to the public by Christmas 2022.
“We will impact so many more animals than we currently do. With a trauma hospital that is actually built that can function 24/7 to manage these critical cases” said Hansen. “We handle right now about 12,000 animals in our trauma hospital. That number will easily go much higher when this new campus is operational because we’ll be able to run it 24/7 and it’s in a very accessible and safe area. It will be an asset to the community.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been modified to correct the size of the Papago Park campus.
