A Bit of History

Pet Savers was established in 1995 as a 501(c)3 non-profit feline foster and adoption organization. It quickly, however, became apparent to the founders that foster and adoption alone were not going to make a significant impact on the staggering pet overpopulation problem in Spokane County and the surrounding areas.

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In 2001, Pet Savers shifted its mission to address this overpopulation issue at its source, “Saving Lives Through Prevention” by providing low-cost spay and neuter services. Pet Savers began these spay and neuter efforts by conducting mobile spay/neuter events. Over the next four years, more than a dozen events were held, sterilizing hundreds of dogs and cats in and around Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. As the demand grew so did the awareness of the area of need. Pet Savers’ service area increased to include pets from as far away as Moses Lake and Canada, but most consistently all areas of the Inland Northwest and Northern Idaho.

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With growing community awareness of Pet Savers offering, there was also a realization that staffing occasional mobile clinics in different regions of the service area was not addressing the volume of need in a timely manner. In May of 2005 Pet Savers secured a permanent location at 7525 East Trent Avenue in Spokane Valley, Washington.

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The initial Pet Savers clinic had been extensively renovated from a private residence built in 1924. While there was 1,700 square feet in the building, the layout was inefficient with the space split between the main level and basement and the electrical and plumbing was out of date. In order to create the most efficient clinic flow as possible, the clinic itself occupied the main level while the medical storage and supplies, employee breakroom, and sterilization equipment were housed in the basement. The laundry facilities were positioned in an enclosed back porch area between the main floor and the basement, and things like feral cat cages, donated food, outdoor maintenance equipment, etc. are stored in outdoor unheated sheds. Space had been utilized extremely efficiently but was woefully short of the ideal.

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In 2020, the once dream began to become a reality as the Pet Savers Executive team and board of directors pushed forward to pursue a much larger, newer facility. One that was in a better geographical location and could allow us to comfortably increase capacity and upgrade equipment and accommodations to hospital standards. We did some capital fundraising and found a location in Spokane Valley that was perfect for our next chapter. Renovations and construction took about a year and in the Fall of 2022 we moved into a very spacious and beautiful clinic at 12824 E Nora Ave, Spokane Valley, WA 99216. With the help from the community, ASPCA and River Bank, our dreams came to life! We are working on growing with the need and adding services as quickly as we can.

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The clinic is currently staffed by one full-time veterinarian (Medical Director), one part-time veterinarian, one licensed veterinary technician, an Executive Director, Director of Operations, Operations Manager, and ten full-time and part-time support staff. This amount of staff is the bare minimum necessary to manage the current demand, providing more than 110,000 surgeries since 2005.  This allows Pet Savers’ staff to perform an average of 35 surgical procedures a day, roughly 700 a month, and two vaccine clinics twice a week.