Nevins Farm and Equine Center
Animal shelter and hospital in Massachusetts, US
Nevins Farm and Equine Center, also known as MSPCA at Nevins Farm and the Methuen Animal Care and Adoption Center at Nevins Farm, 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.
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". 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. 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.
History
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.
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