A groundbreaking ceremony was held this week for a new veterinary clinic at the Gulf Coast Humane Society’s Fort Myers facility.
Executive Director Darcy Andrade explained that the new building will bring the no-kill shelter’s two existing clinics under one roof. She added that the expansion will allow the capacity for treatment to double, which will help cut down on the current patient wait time of five to six weeks.
“We're going from our veterinary clinic, where it has four exam rooms, to eight exam rooms, so we can double that. And our hope is to be able to get pet owners and pets into the clinic in a much more timely [fashion] for general care, but also more emergent issues that might arise," said Andrade.
Medical Director Dr. Elena Canupp agrees that the new building will help improve care for the animals.
“Being more concentrated, and having all our facilities in one place, it's going to make us a lot more efficient in what we do and how we do it," Canupp said. "Not just increasing numbers of lives saved, but increasing the quality of the services that we can provide.”
The 10,000-square-foot expansion is 100% donor-funded. Builders hope to finish the project in nine months to a year.
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