Alley Cat Allies (ACA)

Becky Robinson. Becky Robinson is president and co-founder of Alley Cat Allies, the nation’s only advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, the mission of Alley Cat Allies is to end the killing of cats and lead the movement for their humane care. Robinson co-founded Alley Cat Allies in 1990, after she realized that… See full bio.

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Story: Alley Cat Allies is the only national advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. Alley Cat Allies has charted a course set on animal control and shelter industry reform and humane treatment through activities including: Advocating for pounds and shelters to keep public records of animal intake and kill rates, for public and mandatory government oversight, and for increased pound and shelter accountability; Mobilizing and educating the public and leading the national movement to end the killing of cats and to protect and improve their lives; Supporting the efforts of, and acting as the national voice for, thousands of individuals and groups across the U.S. who provide humane care for stray and feral cats. Alley Cat Allies was founded in 1990 by two women who recognized that stray and feral cats’ needs were not being met by the animal control pound and shelter system. They realized that when well-meaning citizens called pounds and shelters about feral cats, their only response was to kill them.

Evidence of Impact Summary:

With a very narrow focus on helping feral cats, Alley Cat Allies has organized thousands of volunteers around the country to provide direct care for feral cat colonies in local communities. The group has also had the largest impact on changing the public perception of feral cats in recent years, challenging conventional wisdom about the impacts of cats on urban wildlife, and generating acceptance of innovative techniques such as trap-neuter-return.
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Organization Strengths Summary:

According to experts, Alley Cat Allies does a great job of providing marketing and resource materials. They are the recognized resource for their area of expertise.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

According to experts, Alley Cat Allies needs better recognition among the general population so they could do a better job of educating about community cats. They could also use increased funding to hire more higly skilled staff and increase marketing. They would benefit from more resources to develop complete and updated fact sheets for advocacy for and hands on care of feral cats.
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Becky Robinson is president and co-founder of Alley Cat Allies, the nation’s only advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, the mission of Alley Cat Allies is to end the killing of cats and lead the movement for their humane care. Robinson co-founded Alley Cat Allies in 1990, after she realized that there was no national organization providing education and resources to the thousands of Americans caring for the outdoor cats in their communities. Under Robinson’s leadership, based on years of hands-on investigation and expertise, Alley Cat Allies established the first best-practice standards for Trap-Neuter-Return in the United States. Today, with more than 260,000 supporters all over the world, Alley Cat Allies is the recognized authority on feral cats, and the leader of the movement to protect and improve the lives of cats everywhere. Her organization promotes Trap-Neuter-Return (a program in which outdoor cats are humanely trapped, altered, vaccinated and returned to their outdoor homes) and accessible, affordable neuter services as keystones of humane cat care for the country. Further, Alley Cat Allies is working on a national level to reform animal pound and shelter policies that kill more than seventy percent of cats who enter. Robinson has advised veterinarians, communities, and feral cat organizations on the domestic cat species and its relationship to humans. She has also helped many communities across the country launch or improve proactive life-saving programs, including Washington, D.C.; Cape May, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Buffalo City, Wisconsin. She and her team have provided support to thousands of caring individuals and grassroots groups, and have guided them in carrying out Trap-Neuter-Return for feral cats. Robinson has more than a decade of experience running large-scale feral cat programs, including humane and safe feral cat trapping, successfully mediating with people in business, industrial, and residential settings so that humans and cats peacefully coexist, and establishing three spay and neuter clinics in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area that serve as models for feral cat veterinary care. She regularly speaks at conferences in North America and Europe. Robinson holds an M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Missouri and a B.A. in Social Work, from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. She lives with her husband and five cats in Arlington, Virginia where she also cares for a colony of cats.

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