At Alley Cat Advocates, we get a lot of questions. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions we get.

Don’t see an answer to your question? Contact us and we will help in anyway we can.

Alley Cat Advocates was incorporated in Kentucky in February of 1999 and received Federal 501 (c) 3 status in January of 2000. The group was formed to provide a means of spaying and neutering unowned cats with the goal of reducing future populations of unowned cats.

Alley Cat Advocates is comprised of a team of staff and volunteers all who share an interest in reducing the cat overpopulation problem and the suffering it causes by spaying and neutering unowned cats.

Support from Alley Cat Advocates ranges from supporting your activities by providing tips on trapping and colony maintenance to actually trapping, arranging surgeries, and returning the cats to their home.

Check our calendar for the date of our next Volunteer Orientation.  We will work with you to match your skills, interests, and available time with the group’s needs.

We are always in need of a variety of supplies and, as a group whose work is funded almost entirely by donations, financial support is always welcome. Visit the “ways to give” section of our website or call us at (502) 634-8777 for more information.

Yes, as a group granted 501 (c) 3 status by the federal government, your donations are fully tax deductible.

No other organization in the Louisville Metropolitan area currently focuses all their efforts on spaying, neutering and returning to their environment unowned cats.

There is no definitive way to know except to ask your neighbors. Some have found that posting found signs in the neighborhood is a good way of asking all neighbors at once. If no one responds to your signs, one can assume that while the cat may have been someone’s pet at some point, that individual is no longer assuming responsibility and the animal is now unowned.

Some unowned cats are able to find adequate shelter and sufficient food. All benefit from a supply of quality cat food, shelter, and veterinarian care as needed.

Call Alley Cat Advocates at (502) 634-8777. A team member will call you and describe the simple process leading to the spaying or neutering of the cat(s) and how to continue to help the cat(s) after the surgery.

While the outdoor environment is not always conducive to a long, safe life for these cats, there are, unfortunately, not enough homes for all unowned cats. Returning them spayed or neutered, however, greatly improves the cats’ quality of life. In the males, their urge to roam and fight is markedly reduced. For the females, they are freed from an endless cycle of being in heat, getting pregnant, giving birth, and nursing and caring for kittens.

The number of cats far exceed the number of indoor homes available. The statistics vary widely because un-owned cats are hard to count.  But, animal welfare agencies have reported that there are 5 to 15 cats born for every household in the United States. There are simply not enough indoor homes for every cat.

It is widely accepted within the humane movement that a TNR program is the most effective way to stabilize and reduce the unowned cat population. It is also the most humane method. The basic strategy (there are many variations of TNR) underlying all forms of TNR programs is to identify an unowned cat or colony of unowned cats, humanely trap the cat(s), spay/neuter them, and return them to their environment. The entire process takes from one to three days on average.

All cats going through Alley Cat Advocates’ program return to an environment where they are fed and provided shelter. This support is provided by the individual who requested help from the group.

Alley cats is a phrase used generically to describe cats who are stray or unowned.  They are typically found in groups behind restaurants, at motels and hotels, at apartment complexes, in parks, and in alleys. Any place a cat (or more than one cat) can find food and shelter is a potential home for an alley cat.

Alley Cat Advocates assists caretakers with TNR in many ways. For example, we provide:

  • Volunteers to counsel, train, schedule surgeries, trap and transport
  • Traps, crates and other supplies for caretakers to borrow
  • TNR training – from trapping to colony management – to interested individuals
  • “Recovery space” for cats after surgery
  • Financial assistance to cover part or all of the cost of spay/neuter surgeries

Alley Cat Advocates does not provide direct assistance for the situations described below.  If your situation is among those listed, please check the yellow pages under Animal Shelters, or Humane Societies for assistance.

We cannot provide assistance:

  • If the person requesting our help will not allow the cat to be returned to its environment
  • If the cat is an owned pet
  • In helping find a cat a new home

Not enough indoor homes …
The number of cats far exceed the number of indoor homes available. The statistics vary widely because un-owned cats are hard to count.  But, animal welfare agencies have reported that there are 5 to 15 cats born for every household in the United States. There are simply not enough indoor homes for every cat.

75 percent of surplus cats come from breeding by stray cats
According to a study done by the National Pet Alliance, 75 percent of surplus cats come from breeding by stray cats. In a presentation to the AHA/CFA Federal Cat Conference in 1996, Karen Johnson of the National Pet Alliance stated that, “Owned cats are not the cause or the solution to the problem of too many cats entering shelters. Unowned cat reproduction must be addressed … by making it as easy as possible for citizens to round up and alter as many stray cats as possible.”

The traditional method of controlling the stray population has been to trap and remove the animals, and then to either place them in homes or euthanize them.  As we see from the numbers mentioned above, placing all homeless cats is not numerically possible; also many stray cats are not tame enough to make suitable pets.

The Cost of Trap / Neuter / Return versus Euthanasia
What about trapping and euthanizing stray cats that cannot be placed? Killing healthy animals is distasteful to most people.  It is also not a solution.  If the cats are removed without changing the environment (i.e.  removing the food source and shelter), more cats quickly replace the cats that were removed.  It is also more expensive to continually trap and euthanize cats than to alter the cats and maintain a colony.  In a study done by the San Francisco SPCA and the National Pet Alliance, they found that the cost to maintain a 1000 cat population using the trap/neuter/return method would cost $17,306 initially and $2,660 a year thereafter.  To trap/remove/euthanize, the cost would be just under $80,000 initially and then just over $60,000 a year after that to keep the population under 1,000.

The Trap / Neuter / Return Method
The trap/neuter/return method has been used in England since the 1960s with much success.  In the United States, the first national organization to be devoted exclusively to the welfare and maintenance of stray cats was formed in 1990, although the method was being practiced on a local level well before then.

Help Louisville’s Community Cats Live Their Best Life

Find out how you can help the cats in your community today.