Letter sent to Wetumpka Court Magistrate 12/14/2022, in Defense of Mary Alston and Beverly Roberts
Attn: Ms. Kelly Tyrone
City of Wetumpka
Court Magistrate
Dear Ms. Tyrone:
I am the founder and president of Alley Cat Rescue, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the humane treatment of all cats, with particular attention to the plight of community cats.
I would like to offer insight, drawing from my 40 years of experience in the field of cat welfare, regarding the actions of Mary Alston and Beverly Roberts, who are facing trial for sterilizing and feeding outdoor cats. My hope is that you will understand that Ms. Alston and Ms. Roberts have been providing Wetumpka with a valuable service and will therefore not only grant them all possible leniency, but consider allowing them to work with the city’s department of animal control to develop a program for the humane care and management of feral cats.
Alley Cat Rescue is one of many organizations across the country that practice “trap-neuter-return” (TNR), the process of trapping, spaying/neutering, vaccinating, and then returning feral cats back to their outdoor homes. TNR is effective because it stops the breeding cycle of outdoor cats. Numerous scientific studies have proven the efficacy of trap-neuter-return in controlling outdoor cat populations, as well as preserving the health and lives of feral cats. I urge you to visit our website (https://www.saveacat.org/tnr-statistics.html) to read about some of those studies yourself. It is Alley Cat Rescue’s official stance that no other method of population control is as humane nor as effective as TNR.
TNR truly decreases outdoor cat populations over time, as opposed to removing or eradicating groups of feral cats from an area, which is only a temporary solution. The complete removal of a colony of cats will only result in a new group or groups of cats staking out the area as the resources that attracted the original group remain and are no longer being guarded by those original cats. This is known as the “vacuum effect.” TNR, on the other hand, will lead to a small group of cats that further dwindles over time as they die off naturally without breeding.
From an economic perspective, TNR would reduce intake and euthanasia rates at your municipal shelter, which translates to fewer expenses. From a humanitarian viewpoint, TNR allows feral cats to live out their lives, vaccinated against the most prevalent feline and zoonotic diseases – including rabies – and it prevents kittens from being born under circumstances that are conducive to poor health, suffering, and death.
TNR would not be a fully humane operation if it did not include some maintenance of the cats who have been sterilized and returned. While feral cats do find ways to subsist on their own in cities, they do so mainly by scavenging through litter and trash, and by drinking from dirty pools of water. They usually find the minimum amount of food to survive, and almost none of what they eat is of nutritional value. Poor nutrition greatly weakens cats’ immune systems to the extent that they can die from a common upper respiratory infection. Feeding the cat would be part of a TNR program, and it can be done responsibly. In order to prevent other wild animals from gathering at feeding areas, rules can and should be set that require feeders not to leave food out for longer than one hour, and to clean up all leftover food and trash every day.
I am sure you see that these two women were acting out of compassion and using the proven method of TNR to help a group of innocent, sentient animals and keep their population under control. While Ms. Alston and Ms. Roberts did disobey ordinances to do this, their concern for the health of the cats, which could not afford to be neglected while proper legal channels were explored, must be taken into account.
Please reach out to me should you like more information about TNR and feral cat management.
Sincerely,
Louise Holton
Founder/President
City of Wetumpka
Court Magistrate
Dear Ms. Tyrone:
I am the founder and president of Alley Cat Rescue, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the humane treatment of all cats, with particular attention to the plight of community cats.
I would like to offer insight, drawing from my 40 years of experience in the field of cat welfare, regarding the actions of Mary Alston and Beverly Roberts, who are facing trial for sterilizing and feeding outdoor cats. My hope is that you will understand that Ms. Alston and Ms. Roberts have been providing Wetumpka with a valuable service and will therefore not only grant them all possible leniency, but consider allowing them to work with the city’s department of animal control to develop a program for the humane care and management of feral cats.
Alley Cat Rescue is one of many organizations across the country that practice “trap-neuter-return” (TNR), the process of trapping, spaying/neutering, vaccinating, and then returning feral cats back to their outdoor homes. TNR is effective because it stops the breeding cycle of outdoor cats. Numerous scientific studies have proven the efficacy of trap-neuter-return in controlling outdoor cat populations, as well as preserving the health and lives of feral cats. I urge you to visit our website (https://www.saveacat.org/tnr-statistics.html) to read about some of those studies yourself. It is Alley Cat Rescue’s official stance that no other method of population control is as humane nor as effective as TNR.
TNR truly decreases outdoor cat populations over time, as opposed to removing or eradicating groups of feral cats from an area, which is only a temporary solution. The complete removal of a colony of cats will only result in a new group or groups of cats staking out the area as the resources that attracted the original group remain and are no longer being guarded by those original cats. This is known as the “vacuum effect.” TNR, on the other hand, will lead to a small group of cats that further dwindles over time as they die off naturally without breeding.
From an economic perspective, TNR would reduce intake and euthanasia rates at your municipal shelter, which translates to fewer expenses. From a humanitarian viewpoint, TNR allows feral cats to live out their lives, vaccinated against the most prevalent feline and zoonotic diseases – including rabies – and it prevents kittens from being born under circumstances that are conducive to poor health, suffering, and death.
TNR would not be a fully humane operation if it did not include some maintenance of the cats who have been sterilized and returned. While feral cats do find ways to subsist on their own in cities, they do so mainly by scavenging through litter and trash, and by drinking from dirty pools of water. They usually find the minimum amount of food to survive, and almost none of what they eat is of nutritional value. Poor nutrition greatly weakens cats’ immune systems to the extent that they can die from a common upper respiratory infection. Feeding the cat would be part of a TNR program, and it can be done responsibly. In order to prevent other wild animals from gathering at feeding areas, rules can and should be set that require feeders not to leave food out for longer than one hour, and to clean up all leftover food and trash every day.
I am sure you see that these two women were acting out of compassion and using the proven method of TNR to help a group of innocent, sentient animals and keep their population under control. While Ms. Alston and Ms. Roberts did disobey ordinances to do this, their concern for the health of the cats, which could not afford to be neglected while proper legal channels were explored, must be taken into account.
Please reach out to me should you like more information about TNR and feral cat management.
Sincerely,
Louise Holton
Founder/President