On October 21st, the Charles River Alleycats team kicked off a feline-focused, low-cost spay-neuter project at Mary Ellen McCormack Place, a public housing development in South Boston. This pilot, made possible by a grant from the Massachusetts Animal Coalition, is being executed in collaboration with the Committee for Boston Public Housing and MSPCA | Angell’s SNAP (spay-neuter assistance program).
The ultimate goals of the "Mary Ellen McCormack Place Pilot Project" are to greatly reduce the number of cats and kittens:
To set the stage relative to the need ... McCormack Place is comprised of 1,016 units, making it one of the largest public housing developments in the United States. Traverse the sprawling property at any time and you cannot help but notice that it is not only densely populated with people but also with owned, stray and feral cats!
It is estimated that 11% of owned felines are not spayed/neutered before having at least one litter. The percentage of unaltered felines increases when owners are of more modest means. So, it is easy to conclude that McCormack Place’s owned, intact felines are key contributors to multi-cat households as well as the surrounding stray and feral cat population.
In the weeks and months ahead, the Committee for Boston Public Housing and Charles River Alleycats volunteers expect to deliver 250 cats to MSPCA | Angell from McCormack Place alone. All cats will be spayed/neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped. Here are the results to date:
If you ever had any doubt, the Mary Ellen McCormack Place Pilot Project truly exemplifies the Charles River Alleycats tagline "Making a difference one neighborhood at a time."