ASPCA Grants $1.5 Million toward Opening of PetSmart Charities Humane Alliance Spay/Neuter Training Center

ASHEVILLE, N.C.—Humane Alliance today held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to announce the opening of the new PetSmart Charities® Humane Alliance Spay/Neuter Training Center, co-funded by the ASPCA. The ASPCA has provided a total of $1.5 million towards this project, which features a 12,400 sq. ft. training center including six surgical training suites, classrooms for learning and kennel space for 150 patients. Also new on campus is a 2,200 sq. ft. dormitory, which can house up to 20 students at a time. This new facility will allow Humane Alliance to train up to 855 animal health professionals annually and greatly expand the number of surgeries performed at clinics across the country, all in an effort to make a significant dent on the number of unplanned litters being born and reduce intake at shelters.

In addition to serving animal shelters from 20 counties in Western North Carolina who transport and spay/neuter approximately 23,000 dogs and cats for surgery annually, Humane Alliance operates the only international training campus in the world for high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter surgical protocols and techniques. Veterinarians and veterinary students have traveled to this training center from all over the U.S. and eight countries, including Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Switzerland to learn these surgical techniques and processes. The PetSmart Charities Humane Alliance Training Center, co-funded by the ASPCA, has a waiting list through mid-2016 of private veterinarians, veterinary students and animal welfare professionals opening spay/neuter clinics who are eager to participate in this highly sought-after program.

“The ASPCA is honored to support the critical and truly admirable mission of the Humane Alliance through this project,” said ASPCA President & CEO Matt Bershadker. “The expansion of this clinic will enhance and facilitate the hard work already being done at Humane Alliance to make spay/neuter faster, smarter and more efficient, touching the lives of millions of animals in their own backyard and around the world.”

“The ASPCA made its first grant to the Humane Alliance exactly ten years ago, and we’ve provided support every year since 2007 totaling nearly $6 million,” added Bershadker. “Ours is a strategic partnership based on a foundation of shared values and missions, on a belief that we have an obligation to animals and their welfare and an understanding that science and sheltering go hand in hand.”

“The ASPCA has been, and is, an essential partner in all of our accomplishments. Humane Alliance could not have even begun to implement our programs without the support we have received from the ASPCA,” says Humane Alliance Executive Director Quita Mazzina. “We have had the commitment of a great organization and that resource combined with great effort has achieved significant results. We are so fortunate to have a national leader with vision who understands the importance of engaging veterinarians and focusing on prevention to save the lives of cats and dogs.”

When Humane Alliance opened their doors in 1994, they had a founder, three staffers and big plans to change the world. In 2006, Humane Alliance catapulted into the national spotlight when a training program was established, teaching clinics to operate under their high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter model.  Improved and quicker techniques meant dogs and cats would spend less time under anesthesia. It also meant that they could spay/neuter more dogs and cats daily, in order to combat shelter pet overpopulation problems A total of 137 spay/neuter clinics, 344 veterinary students and 450 private veterinarians from across the U.S. and Canada have been trained at the clinic, resulting in nearly 3,900,000 dogs and cats fixed through the end of 2013.