SPCA opens largest nonprofit veterinary hospital in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — A dental suite, top-of-the-line technology, scales that are built into the floor and an intensive-care unit spread over 60,000 square feet doesn't sound like a description of a nonprofit animal hospital, but it is.

Hospitable hospital: New SFSPCA hospital offers all of the amenities and services of for-profit facilities.

The Leanne B. Roberts Animal Care Center, the new home of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (SFSPCA) hospital/spay and neuter clinic/shelter-medicine program opened this month.

It is the largest veterinary center in the world associated with a shelter program, composed of 17 large exam rooms, two surgery suites, multiple quarantine wards, an intensive-care unit, a radiology room, a dental suite, a pharmacy and more.

It will house the SFSPCA's primary-care hospital, shelter-medicine department, spay/neuter clinic, feral cat program, foster care program and a shelter for homeless animals. Thirteen full-time veterinarians staff the facility, which aims to sterilize 12,000 animals this year, or about twice the number as in the past.

The hospital is named for the late Leanne B. Roberts, a 15-year SPSPCA board member whose son, Eric Bovet Roberts, sits on the board. The Roberts family donated $13 million of the $32 million needed to build the new hospital. Other private donations were received, and a capital campaign is under way to raise the final $7.9 million.

The center replaces a veterinary hospital built in 1924.

The SFSPCA hospital serves about 30,000 animals a year, providing about $1.5 million in charitable veterinary services.