About the Ward 1 Alley Cat Coalition

Note: We no longer provide cat adoptions. We now only provide advice and assistance with TNR (trap, neuter, release) and alley cat maintenance.

Mission

The purpose of the Ward 1 (Washington, DC) Alley Cat Coalition is to protect and prevent abuse of alley cats and to end feline overpopulation through neighborhood-based care and control of healthy cat colonies including spay/neutering, medicating and feeding.

The Problem
In Washington, DC, thousands of cats and kittens are euthanized by shelters each year. Thousands more are killed, tortured or starve or freeze to death. In addition, careless and violent people abuse cats daily while many people abandon their cats when they are tired of them thus adding to the overpopulation of cats. The Coalition believes we can all work together, as a community, to prevent the pain and suffering of our feline friends and to control the overpopulation problem. The solution is easy and simple - spay/neutering and cat colony maintenance. Please consider caring for the cats in your alley. It only takes about 10 minutes a day to look out for our feline friends and solve the overpopulation and abuse problem.

Sharing the Trust
(an excerpt)
We return by a different route, the feral cat and me
as I search for the words to tell our tale
she follows a safe distance behind
stopping to listen and observe me closely
while I chance upon neighbors who chastise me
for I befriend a creature once tame now gone wild
does she dig in their gardens and hunt their land
she disturbs nothing in the sanctuary where I dwell
the birds stay and sing when she visits me
she respects their haven and listens to their song
more frequently now she sometimes stays awhile
ensconced in the chair she has claimed
she purrs and dozes while basking in the safe, warm sun
then she remembers too soon and retreats
to her hiding place far from the human eye.

by Marcia Miller-Twiford

Organization
The Ward 1 Alley Cat Coalition was started by several Ward 1 residents who had a common interest - caring for abused and homeless alley cats. We realized that there were many people, like us, in the community caring for cats in their alleys. We wanted to unite and organize these individual efforts and work together to combine and strengthen our efforts. We want this to be a grassroots effort and then to have this concept spread into other DC Wards. We rely on the help and donations of community residents to fulfill our mission.

Cat Colony Care
Our main goal is to make sure that the cats in every alley have someone to care for them. This someone can be you. It only takes a few minutes (and pennies) a day to make sure these cats are safe, won't starve to death and will survive. Only you can help! We can guide you in your efforts.

Donations
We have no overhead costs and everthing we do is on a volunteer basis as we are community-based. All donations go 100% to the spaying/neutering and medicating of abused and homeless alley cats. The Coalition works in conjuction with Metro Ferals, a non-profit organization. Donations can be made to Metro Ferals which are then earmarked for the Coalition to spay/neuter cats at the Low Cost Spay/Neuter Program at the Petworth Animal Hospital. Your contributions are tax-deductible.

Volunteers
The Coalition is run totally by volunteer efforts including trapping, feeding, medicating, fundraising and promoting and we rely totally on donations and volunteers to carry out our mission. There are many ways in which you can help alleviate the pain and suffering of the hundreds of homeless, abused cats and kittens in your neighborhood, especially, and most importantly, caring for the cats in your alley.

Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) Policy
The Coalition believes in humane population control through traping-neutering-releasing (TNR). Cats are humanely trapped, spayed/neutered and either released or adopted (the lucky ones). Some cats get placed on farms if the alleys they came from are not safe. Once cats are released, we try to make sure someone, perhaps you, in the neighborhood is able to feed and care for them. We believe TRN is better than death, the option many Animal Shelter use.

Email Us
P.O. Box 21367 | Washington, DC 20009

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