This is a special year for Alley Cat Allies: it’s our 25th anniversary! For a quarter century, we have supported caregivers, changed laws, improved shelters, and most importantly, saved cats. Since the beginning, our vision has been to protect cats, no matter which side of the door they lived. In 1990, Alley Cat Allies was born in an alley in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C–and cat advocacy would never be the same. Back then, there were only a few local groups carrying out Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for community cats. Most organizations, even the most well-known national groups, did not work on behalf of community cats. These cats who made their home outdoors were routinely rounded up and killed in shelters and animal pounds. We began to lead a new movement that would change everything by promoting TNR and helping to establish lifesaving programs across the country. For 25 years, we have provided a voice to the often overlooked community cat, and we will always be their strongest advocate.
Now that TNR is an established, mainstream practice, the time is right to face, head-on, the largest threat to cats: being killed in shelters. Our work to change the shelter system to save cats has already begun. Alley Cat Allies’ Future Five: Shelter Partners to Save Cats’ Lives program was established to create a set of model shelters across a variety of locations and circumstances. The Future Five shelters have already taken amazing strides to save cats. They’re saving more animals, increasing spay, neuter, and vaccination access, and ensuring the safety of community cats.
We built the cat protection movementand with your dedication and support, together we have come a long way and saved so many lives. We have also changed shelter policies in communities across the country. But not every community has embraced TNR and lifesaving programs yet. So as we celebrate 25 years of Alley Cat Allies, we also look to the future of advocacy, and we need your support as we move into the next generation of cat protection.
