With 22,000 animals projected to enter its doors this year and chronic overcapacity at shelters Valley wide, the Arizona Humane Society’s Sunnyslope Campus was reopened to adoption and foster operations in October (submitted photo).
After closing its doors to shelter and adoption services in February of this year, and opening its new Papago Park Campus in March, the Arizona Humane Society (AHS) in October made a crucial move to alleviate continued pet overcapacity challenges in their shelter by reopening adoption and foster operations at their Sunnyslope Campus, located at 9226 N. 13th Ave.
“What seemed unimaginable just six months ago when we moved into our new Rob & Melani Walton Papago Park Campus is now a necessity,” said Dr. Steven Hansen, president and CEO of AHS. “Our overcapacity challenges are persistent and chronic and while we never intended needing to utilize the Sunnyslope Campus for adoption or foster operations again, it was clear this space could still be a vital resource and lifeline for pets in our community who have no place else to go.”
With 22,000 animals projected to enter AHS’ doors this year alone, and 80 percent of them going to the trauma hospital before foster and adoption, the expansion of operations at the Sunnyslope Campus, which originally opened in 1957, will create more open kennel space for sick, injured and abused pets that are entering AHS’ care.
“Our new campus at Papago Park is designed as a trauma hospital,” Hansen said. “It is a critical care unit where all of our ambulances go, where the critical animals in the Valley that do not have homes that have nowhere else to go for care go. What we need is support programs for that campus. This is where the Sunnyslope campus comes in.”
The reasons for more pets in need of care are complicated and multifaceted, he added. “The pandemic-era moratorium on non-essential surgery, which included spay/neuter, led to an estimated three million missed surgeries nationwide. We’ve also seen a recent increase in abandoned pets at all of our campus locations. Add population growth, increased home prices, rising inflation, lack of affordable pet friendly housing and lack of access to affordable veterinary care and it’s easy to see this problem will not be solved in a month, in a season or even in a year.”
AHS’ teams have seen a 25 percent increase from last year in the number of homeless and owned pets in need of assistance as they respond to 250 calls a day from the community reporting cruelty/neglect and from pet owners desperate to relinquish their pets.
To prepare for the reopening, AHS made minor improvements to kennels, play yards and adoption and foster lobbies, and with the support of PetSmart Charities, the Marge Wright Veterinary Clinic, also located on the Sunnyslope Campus, is undergoing renovations of its own in an effort to expand affordable healthcare services for owned pets. The campus will serve as critical housing for larger dogs especially – those over 40 or 50 pounds. In addition, all three AHS locations began offering adoptions seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Oct. 2. Visit www.azhumane.org/adopt to view adoptable pets.
Those wishing to help are also encouraged to volunteer, foster or donate. AHS also provides resources to pet owners who are struggling to keep pets due to financial hardship, housing insecurity or pet behavior problems.
Learn more at www.azhumane.org/resources-to-keep-your-pet.
