The Arizona Humane Society has reopened its newly renovated trauma hospital at the original Sunnyslope campus in Phoenix, a facility that now doubles the size of its previous trauma space and is expected to treat about 3,000 additional homeless pets each year. The reopened hospital, located at 1311 W Hatcher Road, is designed to ease pressure on the organization’s main trauma center at Papago Park while giving rescue teams faster access to animals in need across the West Valley.
According to KTAR News, the Sunnyslope site first opened as a trauma hospital in 1957, making it the organization’s original home before AHS shifted its main shelter operations to the Rob & Melani Walton Papago Park Campus in early 2024. That $51 million, 72,000-square-foot campus was built at cost by general contractor Ryan Companies, saving the nonprofit more than $1 million in project fees, according to the Phoenix New Times. The plan at the time was for Sunnyslope to shrink into a lower-key spay/neuter and outpatient clinic once Papago Park absorbed the bulk of trauma cases.
That plan didn’t survive contact with reality. Steven Hansen described the newly reopened Sunnyslope facility as a modern trauma hospital, per KTAR News, and said rising costs, housing instability and limited access to spay and neuter services are pushing more pets into the organization’s care. Hansen also said the Sunnyslope campus will give AHS better access to the West Valley, a strategic advantage that lets emergency rescue teams reach injured animals without crossing town to Papago Park.
A Decade-High Wave of Intake
AHS expects its highest intake in more than a decade in 2026, with the organization projecting it will take in more than 28,000 animals this year, according to KTAR News. That surge builds on a system already stretched thin: in its 2024 Impact Report, the Arizona Humane Society reported taking in more than 22,000 animals, treating 17,803 pets in its trauma hospital and another 40,075 across its community clinics, numbers that made it the largest privately funded shelter system in the country…