Animal Center & SNAN Awarded Meserve Memorial Grant

The Animal Center, Inc, in collaboration with Spay & Neuter Association of Newtown (SNAN), has been awarded a $2,000 grant from the Meserve Memorial Fund to partially support a low-cost spay and neuter initiative in Newtown.

The new program will allow The Animal Center and Spay & Neuter Association of Newtown to offer low-cost spay and neuter services to low-income families and feral cat caretakers in Newtown twice a year using the TEAM Feline Mobile Unit, Connecticut’s only mobile spay and neuter and vaccination clinic for cats. The first spay/neuter event is planned for this autumn.

“The goal of this project is not only to reduce the stray cat population in our community, but also help the people who are least likely able to afford to spay/neuter,” says Marion Thompson, president of SNAN.

Adds Monica Roberto, president of The Animal Center, “It was important to include feral cats in this initiative. There are many people feeding feral cats in the community. When you have a colony of six or seven cats, it can be cost-prohibitive to neuter each and every one. By offering affordable, high-quality spay/neuter to feral cat caretakers, we can eliminate future unwanted litters.”

Given The Animal Center and SNAN’s mutual interests in reducing companion animal homelessness, Ms Roberto and Ms Thompson felt their two groups could achieve more to help the animals and people in the community by working together.

More information about the spay and neuter program and how to qualify will be released next month.

Spay & Neuter Association of Newtown is a volunteer organization trying to reduce the number of unwanted animals in Newtown and surrounding communities. Information is available by calling 426-5730.

The Animal Center is a Newtown-based nonprofit charity focused on animal welfare. More information about this group is available at TheAnimalCenter.org or by calling 270-0228.

The nonprofit mobile feline unit is a project of Tait’s Every Animal Matters (TEAM) of Westbrook. For more information, visit EveryAnimalMatters.org.