ORLANDO, Fla. — A new chapter is underway for Pet Alliance, as the organization officially opens its brand-new Orlando shelter following a devastating fire in 2021.
What You Need To Know
Pet Alliance opened a new 25,000-square-foot shelter in Orlando
The facility includes the largest shelter medical clinic in Florida
It can care for up to 275 animals at a time
The project cost $15 million, with about $300,000 left to raise
The 25,000-square-foot facility is designed to expand care for animals across Central Florida. It features air-conditioned housing for dogs and cats, double the medical space, and the largest shelter veterinary clinic in the state.
The shelter also includes quarantine areas to help prevent the spread of disease, dedicated rooms for neonatal kittens, outdoor play spaces, and the ability to support other shelters during natural disasters.
For donor Lauren Capri, the new space is deeply personal.
Capri says her connection to Pet Alliance began years ago when she was an elementary school teacher, leading community service projects with her students. That involvement grew into volunteering and fostering animals, and eventually, helping fund the new Kylie J. Capri campus, named after her daughter.
“I helped create the Kylie J. Capri animal shelter because adoption is really personal to me. It’s about love and safety and second chances. I named this shelter after my daughter, Kylie Capri and my foster daughter, Joselyn, as a reminder that everyone deserves a fresh start and a new beginning. And it’s a place for our community to rescue a bunch of animals and just have a lot of love in everyone’s hearts and homes.”
Pet Alliance leaders say the new facility will allow them to do more than ever before.
“We have our pet food pantry to provide food to anybody who may need additional resources. And we’re going to be able to re-home animals and find loving homes for those animals,” said Lindsay Framstead, interim executive director of Pet Alliance.
The shelter can care for up to 275 animals at a time and expands the organization’s ability to treat pets with more complex medical needs.
For Capri, seeing the project come together is a moment years in the making.
“I think it’s really special that everything has come full circle from my early days of volunteering at Pet Alliance to finally the grand opening today of this amazing shelter, and it really just means a lot to me that we’re here to help rescue all these animals.”
The new shelter cost about $15 million to build. Officials say they are just over $300,000 away from reaching their fundraising goal.