Koda, a three-legged dog with more grit than most humans, helped FurKids Animal Rescue cut the ribbon this week on its new medical center at the nonprofit’s nine-acre sanctuary campus in Cumming. The opening marks a major expansion of FurKids’ ability to treat sick and injured animals on site, instead of shuttling them out to outside clinics.
The medical center slots in alongside a recently completed dog shelter and a wave of campus upgrades all aimed at reducing stress for animals and getting them adopted faster. FurKids leaders say the new facility will let the organization perform more surgeries in house and provide more intensive care for both cats and dogs.
In 2025, FurKids performed more than 3,500 surgeries and provided medical care for over 5,400 animals out of an existing 1,400-square-foot medical suite, figures highlighted in coverage of the opening. As reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, the expanded clinic is designed to help shoulder that kind of volume with more space and equipment.
Inside the Giaquinto Medical Center
The new 11,000-square-foot building, the Giaquinto Medical Center, includes separate intake and isolation areas for cats and dogs so nervous newcomers are not stacked on top of each other. A comprehensive surgery suite comes equipped for radiology and dental work, and there are dedicated intensive care units for both species.
Upstairs, the center adds feline isolation rooms and staff support areas, and the layout is specifically built to host a veterinary fellowship training program so students can get hands-on shelter medicine experience instead of just textbook cases. Those specifications and donor acknowledgements are outlined in a press release via FurKids.
How the campus fits together
The medical center anchors FurKids’ nine-acre sanctuary, which recently added the 15,000-square-foot Sutherlin Dog Shelter. That building nearly doubled the group’s dog capacity to about 135 animals and was designed to feel less like an institutional kennel and more like a place where stressed-out pups can actually exhale.
The dog shelter features private rooms, training and enrichment areas, expanded outdoor yards and even a splash pad, all intended to dial down anxiety and make the animals more adoptable. WSB-TV reported on the shelter’s opening and how it fits into the larger campus plan.
Why FurKids says it matters
"We've designed a shelter that's got a lot of humane thought that has gone into it," FurKids founder Samantha Shelton told CBS Atlanta, arguing that calmer, quieter spaces help people actually see the animals’ personalities and move adoptions along faster.
Coverage of the project has also pointed to the bigger pressures on Georgia’s animal welfare system, including high shelter euthanasia totals and the ongoing need for accessible spay-and-neuter and preventive care. FurKids leaders say expanding their in-house surgical capacity and community programs is central to easing those strains and keeping animals healthy and adoptable instead of at risk.
Next steps and community services
FurKids has said the medical center will begin operations at the end of July, bringing more of the group’s veterinary work under one roof. The organization also expects to open a community clinic in 2027 that will offer low-cost services to the public and help ease pressure on municipal shelters.
Local reporting has emphasized that the project is meant not only to expand FurKids’ lifesaving reach, but also to create a training pipeline for shelter medicine so more veterinarians are comfortable working in this environment. WSB-TV covered those timelines and next steps for the evolving campus.
People interested in adopting or learning more about services can browse available animals and submit adoption surveys through FurKids’ online listings. Details on the process and current dogs can be found on FurKids' adoption pages.
