San Antonio invests in compassion: New veterinary hospital approved for the West Side
The city council has approved a new Animal Care Services veterinary hospital. Here’s what you need to know.
Last week, the San Antonio City Council officially approved a contract to build a new 17,000-square-foot veterinary hospital for Animal Care Services (ACS) on the West Side. Construction will cost $15 million and take about 18 months to complete, with groundbreaking on the new property set for February.
ACS Director Jon Gary spoke about the expansion, saying, “The current facility just wasn’t designed to care for the number of animals that we have coming in here through our doors. So the new facility is going to give us much better capability to treat animals as well as increase our spay-neuter capacity that we have here on campus.”
The existing 3,000-square-foot facility is located on the Animal Care Services campus along Highway 90 and Highway 151. 11 buildings make up that campus, including an animal shelter providing adoption services, as well as the headquarters for San Antonio’s animal responsive teams.
Animal care needs have increased in recent years
Jalen McKee Rodriguez, the District 2 Councilman, spoke with Texas Public Radio about ACS’s need for a larger facility. “We know that the needs of ACS are great, and when they don’t have the resources that they need to perform the work our community expects and needs, it is a detriment to morale, to trust and to community safety,” he told the outlet. In October 2025 alone, around 2,459 animals were taken into the facility’s care.
With the updated campus comes an increased ability to perform important surgeries, like spaying and neutering, and to provide important medical care and treatment to animals brought into the hospital and its shelter. City leaders who spoke with News4SA said that the project’s approval shows a commitment to the community and to the animals themselves, as ACS will continue to ensure that pets are given the empathetic care they need and deserve.
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