Nevins Farm and Equine Center

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Nevins Farm and Equine Center, also known as MSPCA at Nevins Farm [1] and the Methuen Animal Care and Adoption Center at Nevins Farm, [2] is an animal shelter and veterinary hospital in Methuen, Massachusetts operated by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Part of the 55-acre (22 ha) property is devoted to Hillside Acre Animal Cemetery, a 4-acre (1.6 ha) animal cemetery. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Nevins Farm "never turns away an animal in need" and is the only open-door horse and farm animal rescue center in New England. According to the MSPCA, the center's "equine, farm animal, and small animal surrender, adoption, and foster care services are unique in the Northeast". [3] Located 30 miles (48 km) north of Boston on a rural swath of land between Interstate 93 and Massachusetts Route 28, each year the center serves about 7,000 animals and is visited by approximately 75,000 people. [4] The farm primarily serves the Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire but some of its services, such as the Equine Ambulance Program described below, are international. [3] [6] [7]

History

Nevins Farm before Harriet Nevins donated it to the MSPCA NevinsFarm.jpg
Nevins Farm before Harriet Nevins donated it to the MSPCA

In 1917, Mrs. Harriet Nevins donated her farm of rolling pastures in Methuen to the MSPCA so that it could be used as a rest home for horses and other unwanted or abandoned animals. The donation was accompanied by a $5,000 bequest toward building construction and the purchase of necessary farm implements and machinery. First known as "The Rest Home", the property was used for retired police horses and other horses who worked on the then-cobblestone streets of Boston. Arrangements made with horse owners allowed horses that were still working animals to spend time grazing and relaxing in the fields of Nevins Farm. A common agreement was one in which a horses would rotate between spending a month on the farm and a month in Boston working. [3] [6]

A shelter for small animals was added to the Methuen facility in 1924 and as motor vehicles replaced horse-drawn carriages and fewer horses worked on the streets, the role of the farm began to change. While involvement with smaller animals has increased, Nevins Farm's concern for large animals has remained a central part of its mission. In 1994, the farm launched the Equine Ambulance Program to offer emergency rescue and transport of disabled horses in New England and ambulance services events involving horses worldwide. [3] [6]

George and Connie Noble of Concord, Massachusetts donated the funds for Nevins Farm's 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) adoption center building that opened in 2004. [4] The new facility is officially known as the Noble Family Animal Care and Adoption Center at Nevins Farm. [8]

Adoption

Sheep at Nevins Farm, May 2008 Nevins Farm, Methuen MA.jpg
Sheep at Nevins Farm, May 2008

Today, finding suitable people to adopt animals is primary focus of the farm. Animals available for adoption at Nevins Farm include both typical household pets such as cats, dogs, ferrets, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, parakeets and other small birds, rabbits, rats, and turtles as well as farm animals like chickens, cows, ducks, geese, goats, horses, pigs, and sheep. [3] More unusual animals are sometimes available as well as was the case when the farm acquired a barnyard full new animals that included miniature horses and Nigerian Dwarf Goats from a farm in Southwick, Massachusetts. [4] [9]

According to the MSPCA:

Cocker Spaniels to Siamese Cats to Thoroughbreds to Pygmy Goats ... Shelters take in many homeless purebreds, as well as mixed breeds, and the MSPCA at Nevins Farm works with other humane societies and rescue groups to help find them loving, permanent homes. If you are looking for a purebred companion, you may find one right here. [3]

It is more difficult to find homes for larger animals and according to one employee "They tend to stay a little longer at the farm animal shelter ... It depends when the right person comes around." [9]

Summer is the busiest time of year at the Nevins Farm. According to Stephen Zawistowski, a former executive vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (a non-profit organization without formal connections to the MSPCA), "It's cat season ... Cats tend to reproduce based on, essentially, the solar cycle ... The weather's good. They're more likely to survive. This is particularly true in the Northeast." Zawistowski endorsed the MSPCA staff at Nevins Farm as being able to handle the overload while compromising neither the animals' health nor their safety. [10]

Events

Among the fundraising and other events held at or benefiting Nevins Farm are the following:

Cemetery

The Hillside Acre Animal Cemetery is a pet cemetery that occupies four acres (1.6 ha) of landscaped terrain. The cemetery serves as the resting place of over 18,000 "beloved animal companions" as well as a number of military dogs. [5]

The cemetery offers animals allows patrons to erect marble or granite tombstones for their deceased animals after burial and provides perpetual care for each grave. Each patron is given a key to the locked iron fence surrounding the graveyard. Cremation services are also available allowing patrons to choose between interring their pets' ashes in a grave, taking them home in a sealed urn, or having them scattered. Staff also serves as a resource for who seek the help of support groups to help them deal with the loss of their pets. [5]

Related Research Articles

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to animals. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States."

Animal shelter Place where stray animals are housed

An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until they were claimed by their owners.

Humane society Group that aims to stop human or animal suffering due to cruelty or other reasons

A humane society is a group that aims to stop cruelty to animals. In many countries, the term is used mostly for societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCA). In the United Kingdom, and historically in the United States, such societies provide waterway rescue, prevention and recovery services, or may give awards for saving human life.

In agriculture and in the hobby of animal fancy, a breeder is an individual animal used for selective breeding. A breeder is usually a purebred animal, bred with the intent of producing purebred, or even show-quality animals. However, in some cases, a breeding animal is crossbred with another breed or a mixed breed with the intent of combining aspects of two or more different breeds.

An animal rescue group or animal rescue organization are dedicated to pet adoption. These groups take unwanted, abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempt to find suitable homes for them. Many rescue groups are created by and run by volunteers, who take animals into their homes and care for them — including training, playing, handling medical issues, and solving behaviour problems — until a suitable permanent home can be found.

Overpopulation in domestic pets is the surplus of pets, such as cats, dogs, and exotic animals. In the United States, six to eight million animals are brought to shelters each year, of which an estimated three to four million are subsequently euthanized, including 2.7 million considered healthy and adoptable. Euthanasia numbers have declined since the 1970s, when U.S. shelters euthanized an estimated 12 to 20 million animals. Most humane societies, animal shelters and rescue groups urge animal caregivers to have their animals spayed or neutered to prevent the births of unwanted and accidental litters that could contribute to this dynamic.

The San Francisco SPCA is an animal shelter, a spay/neuter clinic, and a full-service public animal hospital located in San Francisco.

Burholme Park

Burholme Park is a public park in the Burholme neighborhood of Philadelphia. The park and the Robert W. Ryerss Museum and Library was a gift of the last descendant of the Ryerss family, prominent Philadelphians. Robert W. Ryerss died on Feb. 18, 1895 at age 65, leaving his estate to Mary Reed, his wife of eight months and the head housekeeper of the Ryerss Mansion for 27 years. He left everything to her on the condition that upon her death the best part of his land and much of his estate would be left to the “People of Philadelphia, forever” as a museum and public lending library. Mary Reed Ryerss spent the rest of her life traveling around the world collecting objects for the museum and planning for the library and park.

The SPCA of Monterey County is a nonprofit, independent, donor-supported humane society located in Salinas, California that has been serving the animals and people of Monterey County since 1905. It is notable for its collaborative programs with other local non-profit civic organizations. Collaborations developed by the Monterey County SPCA have been used as models for animal protection programs throughout the U.S.

MSPCA-Angell

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center (MSPCA-Angell) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with its main headquarters on South Huntington Avenue in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1868, and is the second-oldest humane society in the United States. "MSPCA-Angell" was adopted as the society's identity in 2003, and indicates the names of its two closely related predecessor organizations: Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Angell Animal Medical Center. The organization provides direct care to thousands of homeless, injured, and abused animals each year, and provides animal adoption, a veterinary hospital, advocacy, and humane law enforcement.

David Nevins Jr.

David Nevins Jr. was a wealthy Yankee merchant in the city of Methuen, Massachusetts during the industrial boom of the late 19th century.

Harriet Francoeur Nevins was an American philanthropist and animal welfare advocate born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Widow of David Nevins, Jr., she used her inheritance to leave a legacy to the people of the Bay State. She died November 14, 1929 at her home in Methuen, Massachusetts.

The National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) is a non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to promoting animal welfare and animal husbandry practices, strengthening the human-animal bond, and safeguarding the rights of responsible animal owners and professionals through research, public education and public policy. The NAIA mission is "to promote the welfare of animals."

Helen Woodward Animal Center is an animal center located in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Located on 12 acres, the Center provides a variety of services that benefit the community through educational and therapeutic programs for people, and humane care and adoption for animals.

Humane Animal Rescue, formerly known as the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania, known commonly as Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center (ARL), is an animal welfare organization founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1909. The ARL is a non-profit organization that offers various services to support both animals and pet owners alike. It is the only animal shelter in the Pittsburgh area that accepts both domestic animals and wildlife. The agency's shelter and clinic are located in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, while its wildlife rehabilitation center and boarding kennels are a few miles away in Verona, Pennsylvania. The organization maintains a contract with the city of Pittsburgh and accepts all stray pets that are apprehended by the Animal Control unit.

Founded in 1910, the Dumb Friends League, based in Denver, Colorado, is the largest independent, nonprofit community-based animal shelter/humane society in the Rocky Mountain region, caring for thousands of pets annually and accepting lost and relinquished pets, as well as hundreds of equines.

Senior Animals in Need Today (SAINTS) is a farm sanctuary for senior and special needs animals in Mission, British Columbia, Canada.

Berkshire Humane Society

The Berkshire Humane Society (BHS) is a private non-profit humane organization in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Founded in 1992, BHS is an open admissions shelter. The humane society operates animal welfare services and pet adoption facilities in Pittsfield and Great Barrington.

Drumlin Farm

Drumlin Farm is a 291 acre farm and wildlife sanctuary which is also the site of the headquarters of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. It is located at 208 South Great Road in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

References

  1. ↑ Campaign for Nevins Farm
  2. 1 2 3 Nevins Farm Community Updates
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Nevins Farm: About Us Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine
  4. 1 2 3 4 David Weber; AP (December 13, 2006). "Nevins Farm offers chance to look at or adopt animals", The Boston Globe . Retrieved on 17 October 2008.
  5. 1 2 3 Hillside Acre Animal Cemetery. MSPCA.
  6. 1 2 3 "MSPCA Historical Timeline Archived 2009-11-17 at the Wayback Machine ". MSPCA.
  7. ↑ "MSPCA at Nevins Farm"". Petfinder.com.
  8. ↑ "Noble Family Animal Care and Adoption Center at Nevins Farm". MSPCA.
  9. 1 2 Crystal Bozek (July 31, 2008). "Nevins Farm makes room for hoarded animals", The Eagle Tribune . Retrieved on 17 October 2008.
  10. ↑ Zach Church (August 2, 2007). "Animal overload: Nevins farm at maximum capacity", The Eagle Tribune. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.

Coordinates: 42°44′04″N71°11′42″W / 42.73444°N 71.19500°W / 42.73444; -71.19500

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