🏆 Cat Person of the Month: Louise Holton

Louise Holton is Founder and President of Alley Cat Rescue, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of cats—whether they be domestic, stray, abandoned, feral, or small wildcat species. Alley Cat Rescue works to help people and governments manage feral cat populations through humane, nonlethal Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) methods.

 

The Alley Cat Rescue webpage is a fantastic resource for useful information, including education about cat care, efforts to end cruelty (from declawing to deadly cat eradication methods), as well as an entire handbook titled, “How to Help Community Cats.” Today, we are honored to speak with Louise Holton.

Mewla: Louise, welcome to the MewlaYoung.org website! Alley Cat Rescue’s  (ACR) many projects that promote “humane and compassionate care for ALL cats” are truly impressive. Tell us, what’s new at Alley Cat Rescue? 

 

Louise: One of our recent projects is our Global Feral Fix Challenge, in which we invite veterinarians around the world to get involved with trap-neuter-return (TNR) by providing low-cost or free spay/neuter surgeries and rabies vaccinations for free-roaming cats. Clinics from all 50 U.S. states, Antigua, Canada, Croatia, Israel, India, Japan, Nicaragua, and England have also taken part in the Challenge over the years since it began in 2010.

 

The challenge has led to the spay/neuter of over 230,000 cats worldwide. The most recent cycle of the challenge alone saw around 51,000 community cats sterilized. 

Mewla: Congratulations! Helping to spay/neuter 230,000 cats is a wonderful achievement, Louise.

 

I hope our reader friends will visit your website. Just one of ACR’s many excellent webpages is its “Feral Cats and the Law” page at Feral Cats and the Law – Alley Cat Rescue (listed under the topic, “How to Help Community Cats”). The page explains how feral cat laws vary in different towns, counties, and countries. The page also discusses legal issues that can impact those caring for community cats. 

One question I get a lot is, where can people who want to support cats go to find out about governmental policies in their geographical area?

Louise: The first place to look is their most local government’s (city or county) Department of Animal Control website. If they have specific questions that are not addressed on the website, they should call the department with their questions.

 

For information about broader, state-wide laws and proposed bills relating to cats, people should search for their state’s official legislative website. These websites allow visitors to look up laws and bills by keywords, and usually also offer the option to sign up for E-mail updates related to individual bills.

Mewla: Thanks for that information, Louise. I encourage all our reader friends to look up your local animal control websites to understand the plight of animals in your communities, as situations and laws vary greatly by state and country. 

 

Alley Cat Rescue is also the first group in the world with an action plan to save the African wildcat, the cat which is the direct ancestor of our domestic cats. We know that many issues need to be resolved to help preserve this amazing animal. Tell us about an important issue that needs to be addressed.

Louise: The biggest issue of course is loss of habitat…but after that it’s hybridization. The wildcats & domestic cats interbreed easily. Our plan is to sterilize cats living on farms and along the borders of National parks like the Kruger National Park. We have several great teams on the ground in South Africa and together they have sterilized over 5,500 cats. 

Mewla: Great solution! You are tackling the problem of hybridization and keeping domestic cats safe at the same time.  

 

One question I love to ask is, when did you first fall in love with cats, and what was it that made you fall in love with them? 

 

Louise: My mother rescued stray cats so we grew up with cats and dogs actually. I guess I just continued with the family tradition of rescuing outdoor cats! And my love for the African wildcat started when I saw one in the Kruger Park when I was young, and when I learned about hybridization I just knew the only way to stop this was to sterilize domestic cats. 

Louise & friend Toby (Photos courtesy of Louise Holton)

Mewla: And who are the cats in your life today? 

 

Louise: Several rescued cats of course! There is BJ who traveled to a PetSmart in the engine of a car. He was 3 weeks old and feral. I took him in and bottle-fed him. Then there is Mama Cat who never was a Mama, just the name! She is 17 years old now and I rescued her from a shelter in Baltimore when she was around 6 months old. I also feed several colonies of TNRd cats in my neighborhood. And I love them all, even though I can never touch them.

 My real calling in life is to protect and advocate for feral cats. They are much maligned and misunderstood and treated as pests. 

My work for over 30 years has been to change that perception and to promote humane, nonlethal care. We do have to control populations and TNR is the most effective way to do that. Catch-and-kill simply does not work. More cats will enter the vacated territory.

 

Mewla: Your work promoting the needs of feral cats is very exciting, Louise. Many people still misunderstand feral cats, and so we are thrilled to be able to share your message with others. We encourage our reader friends to seek out ACR’s great resources and help educate others in their communities. Thank you, Louise, for all you and your colleagues at ACR do to help cats. 

 

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12 thoughts on “🏆 Cat Person of the Month: Louise Holton”

  4. Celinne

    What a beautiful lady. She brings light to the world with her compassion and hard work. She works not for self, but the sake of those who can’t speak or advocate for themselves …..the powerless, the forgotten and vulnerable fur children. Thank you Louise and I will donate soon.

    Reply

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