About Us - Richmond SPCA

About the Richmond SPCA

To cultivate a community committed to saving, protecting and enriching animal lives

To provide education and resources to achieve and sustain a no-kill community

We are a national leader in progressive animal sheltering and advocacy, humane care and education. We promote compassion for all living things and help people to find comfort, love and companionship with the pets who share their lives.

We are an independent nonprofit and not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization with Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (or SPCA) in its name, including but not limited to the ASPCA. We do not receive funding from any government entity.

We became a no-kill humane society in 2002. Being no-kill means that we never take the life of any healthy or treatable animal. Once we admit an animal into our care, we treat that animal no differently than we would expect a loving pet guardian to do. If our veterinarian determines that a pet in our care requires veterinary treatment for a sickness or injury, we provide that care so as to return that pet to a healthy or a manageable state. We only euthanize a pet if our veterinarian determines that the pet is too severely sick or injured to ever recover to a life of quality and is suffering or if a pet is so behaviorally aggressive as to present a material risk to the safety of others.

The majority of homeless animals in our care were transferred to our shelter from other shelters. We maintain partnerships with dozens of government agencies throughout Virginia, transferring pets from their facilities to our own and readying them for adoption.

We especially focus on taking into our care animals who are sick or injured because we know that their lives are at the greatest risk and that we are capable of treating, rehabilitating and saving them.

We opened our state-of-the-art Robins-Starr Humane Center in 2002. Our humane center houses our Adoptions Center, Track & Training Center, Exploratorium for children, Wilma’s Admissions Wing, Lora Robins Retail Shop, Volunteer Center, our sheltering operations, and our administrative offices.
In 2016, we opened our Susan M. Markel Veterinary Hospital which sees more than 9,000 pet patients each year who belong to income-qualified guardians and Richmond SPCA adopters.

In 2022, we opened our Smoky’s Spay & Neuter Clinic, a satellite high-quality, high-volume sterilization clinic in Hanover County. In this facility, we spay and neuter pets in the care of local government shelters and private rescue groups at a low cost and free-roaming, unowned community cats for free.

We employ about 170 full- and part-time employees and rely on generous support from approximately 400 active volunteers. Our independent Board of Directors guides our organizational decision making, and we are grateful to them for their bold vision and dynamic leadership.