Courtesy Photo. Alley Cat Rescue President and Founder Louise Holton.

Published on: Wednesday, November 04, 2009

By Shanna Yi

The downturned economy is causing at least one segment of society to grow in Prince George’s County – feral cats, thousands of them, that are dumped because their owners can no longer afford to take care of them. But a local nonprofit is working hard to place the stray cats into adopted homes.

Alley Cat Rescue is dedicated to helping the unwanted cats in the area,locally and nationally. Louise Holton, president and founder, started the organization in 1997, but has been helping feral and stray cats for 30 years.

“The recession has had an economic downturn for animals as well and a lot of times people dump their animals and, a lot are not spayed or neutered; those cats go on to join the feral colonies in the area or create their own,” Holton said. “The recession has definitely hit the cats as well.”

As the wild, untamed cat population grows, Alley Cat Rescue has two noteworthy programs to help place these otherwise unadoptable pets.

One program, Trap-Neuter-Return, provides humane traps to “trap” the animal, spay and “neuter” the animal, and have them “return” the cats to where they were found. But placing feral cats is sometimes not so simple.

“Feral cats are wild — especially second-generation ferals — that have not been in a home and they’ll go a little nutty, climbing up blinds and stuff like that,” Holton said. “A lot of feral cats are unhappy living in a confined space.”

The Barn Cat Program places feral cats in a barn home, and essentially these cats “will work for food” by keeping rodent populations down. Although this practice is not new to farmers, The Barn Cat Program also spays and neuters cats before being released to farms, to reduce the ever-growing cat population.

“Farmers, for centuries have kept cats on their property because cats are so skilled at keeping the rodent populations down,” Holton said. “But sometimes they have unsterilized cats on their farms and they start breeding like crazy.”

Because Alley Cat Rescue operates on a “no-kill” policy, these cats need to be placed. The farmers get a “helping paw” around their farms and the cats get a home where they can be fed and given space, unlike inside a residential home.

The organization does not charge a fee for the Barn Cat Program; however, it does ask for donations. It also asks that farmers promise to provide food and water for the cats as well as an acclimation period by keeping them inside a barn or cage for a period of time. 

“When cats are used to an outdoor area, they need to know that this is going to be their new home and they need a period of two to three weeks to acclimate, to know it’s safe and that they can stay there and get fed,” Holton said.

According to Holton, there is “a huge need, absolute huge need,” for these barn homes because the feral population equals owned cat population, which is now at 19 million and growing, in the country.

Alley Cats Rescue also runs a local adoption program through PetSmart on Cherry Hill Road in College Park, where tame cats can be adopted for $135.

For more information, call 301-277-5595 or visit www.saveacat.org.