Alley Cat Rescue

Alley Cat Rescue is an organization founded by Louise Holton in Mount Rainier, Maryland that helps to protect and save cats through rescue, rehabilitation and adoption. The organization participates in Luv A Pet, which provides adoptions through PetSmart stores, and offers a low-cost spay and neuter clinic to residents of Maryland, Virginia and the Washington D.C. area, as well as Trap-Neuter-Return for feral cats.

Louise Holton, a South African, worked in Africa on conservation issues in the 1970s, concentrating on endangered species such as the cheetah. She also worked with the Johannesburg Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on cat overpopulation including pioneering work on nonlethal control of homeless and stray cats through the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program. The feral or stray cats are trapped, taken to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated against rabies and other diseases, ear-tipped, and then returned to their home territory where human caretakers feed and care for them in colonies. Kittens and any cats deemed socialized, thus able to be adopted, are not returned to the colony but are offered for adoption by animal rescue groups. The TNR model for reducing feral cat populations is endorsed by the National Animal Control Association and the Humane Society of the United States. Many animal shelters and rescue groups, large and small, in the United States provide some type of Trap-Neuter-Return Program. The movement to control the population of feral cats with this method began in Europe. When news of it reached South Africa in the 1970s, Louise Holton was already actively feeding colonies of cats in Johannesburg. "As soon as they started talking about TNR it just made sense to me.", she said. Holton trapped her colonies with the Johannesburg SCPA providing the spay and neuters.

She moved to the U.S. in 1986 to work in animal protection for Animals' Agenda in Connecticut. Along with Becky Robinson, she co-founded Alley Cat Allies in 1990, bringing to the U.S. her experience in working with homeless cats in South Africa and also involving her many British counterparts, biologists and veterinarians, who pioneered this work in Britain and in other parts of the world. Both women entered the world of stray and feral cats in the United States after Robinson spotted a large group of homeless cats searching for food in an upscale Washington, D.C. neighborhood. As the two women began what would become the first feral cat clearinghouse in the United States, things did not always run smoothly. When they began trapping the strays, some local animal shelters asked them why they were spending time and money on "pests". By 1991, however, they were warmly received when they conducted their first feral cat workshop in New Jersey. Holton left Alley Cat Allies in 2001, going on to found Alley Cat Rescue.

Through Alley Cat Rescue, Holton was once again able to lend a hand in the country of her birth, with a program to help save the African Wildcat from extinction. Numbers of purebred wildcats are declining, due at least in part to their interbreeding with stray and feral domestic cats. Alley Cat Rescue's African Wildcat Program provides for Trap-Neuter-Return for the domestic cats in the areas surrounding South Africa's game reserves, leaving fewer chances for interbreeding. In 2007, the organization set its sites on Mexico, traveling to Puerto Vallarta, where they provided a free two day spay and neuter clinic for both dogs and cats, complete with volunteer veterinarians and veterinary technicians. It was also an educational experience for the local veterinarians as they learned how to perform these types of surgeries. The procedures were not taught to them in medical school.

Alley Cat Rescue launched a new annual program called "Free Feral Cat Spay Day" on April 27, 2010. Founder Louise Holton sent messages to veterinarians across the United States, asking each one to publicly offer at least two free feral cat spay or neuters. Over 150 vets in the US gave their skills and time in response. Louise's home country of South Africa also answered her call, with veterinarians from the South African Veterinary Association, University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science, and the Sun City Resort offering the same services to local feral cats.