First Coast No More Homeless Pet

First Coast No More Homeless Pets was founded in 2002, when 23,000+ animals were killed annually in Jacksonville shelters. The Mayor convened an animal welfare task force, and our founder, Rick Ducharme, volunteered. In Rick’s travels across the country, he learned that targeted spay/neuter programs were most effective in dealing with pet overpopulation. He shared this with the task force, and when no other organization stepped up, he formed FCNMHP. FCNMHP started as a voucher program; by 2009 we opened our Norwood Clinic, one of the nation’s largest spay/neuter clinics. Then, in 2016, we opened the Cassat Avenue Regional Veterinary Hospital, which is one of the largest safety net hospital in the southeast. We have grown to serve 100,000 pets and the people that love them annually with programs and services that increase access to veterinary care and help fulfill our mission. The mission of First Coast No More Homeless Pets is to make veterinary care affordable and accessible to all as we save lives by keeping dogs and cats in homes and out of shelters, provide low-cost spay/neuter services with emphasis on feral/community cats, and deliver a broad range of related programs and services. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

We operate the largest spay/neuter clinic in the country with more than 20,000 surgeries a year targeting the animals that are most at risk of straining our partner shelters. First Coast No More Homeless Pets helps people and their pets with affordable, accessible veterinary care through our sustainable industry-leading programs, services and solutions. We are not a shelter; we make shelters stronger with a broad range of comprehensive programs like our Pet Food Bank, large-scale adoption events, and through low-cost or no-cost spay neuter programs.