Pet & Animal Specialty in Phoenix
The Phoenix Zoo is the largest privately owned, nonprofit zoo in the United States, and Scottsdale's OdySea Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the entire Southwest, housing more than 6,000 animals behind the world's only rotating aquarium theater. The Valley is also home to one of Arizona's largest wildlife-rehabilitation organizations and one of the state's only nonprofit animal trauma hospitals.
Phoenix Zoo
Founded in 1962, the Phoenix Zoo operates as the largest privately owned, nonprofit zoo in the United States and has built an international reputation for endangered-species breeding and conservation work. It remains one of the largest zoos in the country not owned by a municipality or a for-profit operator.
OdySea Aquarium
OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale spans more than 200,000 square feet and 2 million gallons of water, housing over 6,000 animals across 370 species and 65 exhibits -- making it the largest aquarium in the Southwestern United States. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and features the world's only rotating aquarium theater.
Arizona Humane Society
The Arizona Humane Society operates one of the only nonprofit trauma hospitals for animals in the state, alongside emergency-rescue and field-response teams that respond to sick, injured, and abused animals across the Phoenix metro. It is one of the largest animal-welfare organizations in Arizona by intake volume, handling well into the tens of thousands of animals every year.
Liberty Wildlife
Based at Papago Park in Phoenix, Liberty Wildlife is one of Arizona's largest wildlife rehabilitation organizations, treating thousands of injured, orphaned, and displaced native animals each year, with a particular specialty in raptors. Non-releasable birds in its care are placed into its education programs rather than being euthanized, a distinctive practice among rehabilitation centers of its size.
Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center
Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center, north of Scottsdale near the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, rehabilitates injured and orphaned native Arizona wildlife for release and provides lifetime sanctuary for animals that can't return to the wild -- including Mexican gray wolves, one of the rarest and most endangered wolf subspecies in North America. Its wolf program supports the federal Mexican gray wolf recovery effort across Arizona and New Mexico.