The Brandywine Valley SPCA continues to expand its footprint in the First State with the purchase of a veterinary hospital in New Castle.
The more than 12,000 square foot facility is the former site of the Veterinary Specialty Center of Delaware.
BVSPCA spokeswoman Linda Torelli says it is twice the size of the existing BVSPCA New Castle site it replaces.
“We’ve really outgrown our current campus,” said Torelli. “We get tremendous demand from the community for low-cost veterinary services, for instance. When we look at our numbers last year compared to the year before, our clinical services are up 30 percent across all of our campuses.”
Torelli says the new facility will include the state’s first ever Intensive Care Unit for dogs and cats which will be used to treat animals from all three counties.
“That ICU is going to help us take care of pets from Georgetown, from Dover, in New Castle,” she said. “That we may have to send out for care right now or may be at higher risk because they have contagious diseases. We have additional quarantine rooms; the in house hospital. It’s really going to be a great life-saving resource”
The BVSPCA is also planning a 7,500 square foot addition to the site to add space for a shelter and community center.
Torelli says shelter animals will have more spacious housing at the new facility. Adoptable dogs and cats will each enjoy both indoor and outdoor space.
The venture is expected to cost $4 million and open this fall. The BVSPCA has already spent $5 million in private donations over the past five years to expand its infrastructure in all three Delaware counties.
