MWHS Programs
Foster Care Program
All kittens entering into our care are placed in pre-screened, volunteer foster homes after leaving the animal hospital. Since kittens are extremely fragile, they do best under constant supervision in a home environment. Feral kittens have additional socialization needs in order for the general public to deem them adoptable. MWHS provides food and medical care and the foster family provides time, love and socialization until the kittens are old enough and sufficiently socialized for adoption.
Join our foster care program today! If you live in the MetroWest area and can provide a foster home, please Contact: Mary O’Donnell-Ptak at (508) 624.0783 for more information
Sponsor-A-Cage Program
There are many cats in our care that may never be offered a home and who will be in our care for the rest of their lives. One way to make sure that these cats, as well as the more adoptable ones, receive the care and comfort they deserve is by sponsoring one of the cages.
It’s easy to do and it’s custom designed by you! Here’s how the program works. There are 20 cages at the shelter. You select the cage number that you would like to sponsor throughout the year and indicate the amount of your monthly donation ($5.00 min) - remember, every little bit helps us. The donations received in conjunction with this program go toward food and medical care for the animals in the particular cage you sponsor.
Each month you will receive a pledge reminder and picture of the cats in the cage you are sponsoring. This special program is a wonderful way for you to help us care for our animals and is important because it allows us to budget your donations for our monthly expenses.
Consider adopting a cage as a gift for someone – you’ll receive the monthly pledge card, and the photos of the cats will be mailed to the person receiving your gift.
- Please meet our shelter kitties, look for the cage number within their description and send in the form below with your first monthly payment.
- Sponsor-A-Cage Form Please save it to your computer, fill it out completely and mail in to MWHS.
Contact: MWHS mwhspaw@yahoo.com for more information
Adoption Program
MWHS believes that every animal entering our shelter deserves a second chance. Finding an animal the proper home is one of our most important functions. We pay strict attention to the needs and personalities of the animal and its prospective owner when we consider applications. We feel it is our responsibility to ensure a proper placement for the animals in our care, and therefore, prospective adopters are carefully screened.
Get started by meeting some of our guests at the shelter, then download the adoption application, complete it and email it back to us so that we can start the adoption process. Or come to the shelter and visit our cats during adoption hours! We look forward to seeing you there, as do the cats!
Spay/Neuter Assistance Program
MWHS provides reduced-cost spay/neuter assistance to individuals who desire to have their animals spayed but who could not otherwise afford to do so. All monies spent on this program are generated through annual fundraiser's and private donations.
Contact: Leslie at (508) 485.0794 for more information
Trapping Program
There is high demand from the community for this service and MWHS is one of the few shelters who will actually do the trapping. We receive many calls each week asking for our assistance and over 50% of these calls are asking for help with feral cats and kittens. Kittens are put into foster care, while the majority of adult cats are brought to the shelter once they have been medically treated, including being spayed/neutered by a veterinarian. Shelter space is limited and the sheer volume of these telephone calls necessitates the need to expand our TNR (trap, spay/neuter, return program.)
Contact: MWHS mwhspaw@yahoo.com for more information
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)
TNR is a full management plan in which stray and feral cats already living outdoors are humanely trapped, then evaluated, vaccinated, and sterilized by veterinarians. Kittens and tame cats are adopted into good homes. Healthy adult cats too wild to be adopted are returned to their familiar habitat under the lifelong care of volunteers.
When unsterilized house cats are abandoned or lost, they and their offspring band together in groups called colonies. Without human contact, the colonies become feral (wild).TNR is a lifesaving and permanent solution.
There are decades of documented proof, and perhaps centuries of practical knowledge, that campaigns to catch and kill all the cats in an area where they have established their homes do not work. Survivors breed exponentially; outsiders move in to take advantage of whatever food source exists. This is called the VACUUM EFFECT. It is how the cycle of population growth always begins anew.
Feral cat caregivers are helping cats that are already there. Caregivers are actively helping the cats and working to reduce their numbers over time. They are reducing wandering and other behaviors that may lead to conflicts with others.
Having the cats altered and returning them to their habitats is the quickest way to permanently reduce feral cat populations. TNR colonies stabilize or decrease in number through means of natural attrition and/or the adoption of tame cats.
TNR and colony management by compassionate individuals is accomplished wholly at private expense while trapping the cats and taking them to animal control agencies requires taxpayer dollars for intake, housing, handling, feeding, killing and disposal.
Every reputable study to date has shown that claims of cat predation affecting bird and wildlife populations are wholly overstated, and that the true causes of population declines are factors such as habitat loss, pollution, pesticides, and drought. Unless we are going to conclude that studies on four continents are all wrong, feral cats should not be unfairly implicated in any perceived decimation of wildlife populations.
TNR is practiced in thousands of communities on all levels across the nation. We have had success in this community with our TNR Program. If you are aware of a stray TNR situation, please contact us for more information.
Contact: MWHS mwhspaw@yahoo.com for more information
MWHS Community Outreach Program
In August 2003, the MetroWest Humane Society instituted a community outreach program for people who need assistance in adequately feeding the cats in their care.
The residents in the MetroWest area have been extremely generous with food donations to MWHS, which in turn enables us to enhance our services to the community. Initially, this program was started in the towns of Framingham and Ashland, with the hope of expanding to neighboring towns. Currently food packets can be found in the SMOC MetroWest Harvest Food Pantry at 300 Howard Street in Framingham (this is in the old Dennison Building), and in the Senior Center building at the corner of Olive Street and Route 136 in Ashland.
The dry food we receive ranges from 1-pound boxes to 20-pound bags, which we then repackage into smaller quart-size zip-lock bags, each of which equals a box of dry cat food if it were purchased over the counter. The bags are identified with the brand of food enclosed along with a contact number, should someone need assistance in spaying or neutering his/her pet. When moist and semi-moist food is available, that is also included in the program.
Contact: Pat Daley at: Patdaley28@yahoo.com for more information.
