Alley Cat Allies - National Office

Alley Cat Allies, Inc. (ACA) was founded in 1990 and incorporated in Delaware in 1991. For eight years, ACA functioned as a volunteer organization with only a post office box address. In 1998, we opened an office in Washington, DC, and today employ a staff of 20 who work on feral cat programs and issues nationwide. Alley Cat Allies is registered as a 501(c)(3) with the IRS.

In 1990, the great majority of shelters and animal control agencies either ignored feral cats or practiced removal and “euthanasia,” They knew nothing about nonlethal methods to control and reduce feral cat colonies. Alley Cat Allies was created to be a national resource center providing assistance, guidelines, and educational materials on nonlethal feline population control.

The method Alley Cat Allies advocates throughout North America is known as Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), first used in Denmark, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. TNR is the preferred method in these countries for feral cat population control. TNR is a nonlethal approach to feral cat population control. Feral means "gone wild" - either a cat has reverted to the wild state after being lost or abandoned or is born and has no human contact for the first few weeks of life, the offspring of stray or abandoned domestic cats. TNR is a comprehensive management plan where all healthy feral cats are sterilized and vaccinated, and then returned to their habitat and provided with long-term care. Adoptable (tame) cats and kittens are placed into homes.

For over fifteen years, Alley Cat Allies has helped thousands of individuals improve the lives of tens of thousands of stray and feral cats and kittens and has motivated and assisted hundreds of grassroots activists to found feral cat groups in their communities. Many of these small organizations have expanded to become models for other cities. In addition, veterinarians, wildlife biologists, humane organizations, animal control agencies and animal shelters frequently request information and guidance from Alley Cat Allies to develop programs and policies for nonlethal control of felines.

Note: PO Boxes will not show correctly on the map below.