Pet Alliance is the oldest animal welfare agency in central Florida, founded in 1937 as the Orlando Humane Society. Though its name has changed several times, Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando has always served the same mission: to improve the wellbeing of animals. They ensured this through its 3 clinics, 2 of which also had no-kill animal shelters. Most animals would spend less than 2 weeks in the shelter before being adopted.

On Wednesday, September 15th, tragedy struck as the Greater Orlando Pet Alliance location caught fire. The presumed cause was an electrical fire, causing the wood roof to become engulfed in flames. The flames burned near the cat area and clinic of the building. The fire was reported by staff from Orange County Animal Services, and firefighters were on the scene in minutes. As the building was still burning, firefighters from Orange County fire heroically ran into the building to rescue as many animals as possible, as other firefighters battled the blaze from the outside. Orange County Fire was able to rescue 45 cats and all 26 dogs, but tragically, 17 cats died in the fire.

The building, located on Conroy Rd, in the Millenia area of Orlando, was deemed a total loss. As Pet Alliance owns the building, but Orange County owns the land, they decided they won’t rebuild at that site. Instead, they will continue with their plans to build a new location near the John Young Pkwy and Interstate 4 intersection, which is slated to be completed in 2024. In the meantime, they are looking for a temporary location to handle adoptions and provide foster to animals.

All of the dogs and the surviving cats were transferred to the Sanford location. So far, the Sanford location hasn’t reached full capacity and has been able to shelter all of the incoming animals. However, Pet Alliance receives animals from shelters around the Southeast United States, most recently from rural areas in Louisiana due to Hurricane Ida.

So far, the community outreach has been amazing. Pet Alliance has gathered over $500,000 in donations so far, from over 12,000 people and businesses. Pet Alliance along with multiple truckloads of food and pet supplies, so much that they are no longer accepting physical donations. In the following week, over 50 animals were adopted from the shelter.

If you are interested in helping Pet Alliance build a new shelter animals and continue its mission of improving animal welfare, then you can donate at the link below.

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