Alley Cat Rescue's guest appearances

Alley Cat Rescue

The Community Cats Podcast

OwlTail

Louise Holton

Deborah Holzer

“Our whole lives are really to get the word out that this is the solution.” – Louise on TNR This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com, and Maddie's Fund. In this episode, Stacy talks with Louise Holton, Founder of Alley Cat Rescue, and Deborah Holzer, Development Assistant at Alley Cat Rescue. Louise founded National Cat Protection Association in 1997 as the nation’s first national cat protection association and an organization that advocates for all cats. In their conversation with Stacy, Louise and Deborah talk all about community cats. The pair touches on some of the campaigns spearheaded by Alley Cat Rescue. Debbie describes the Global Feral Fix Challenge, an annual initiative promoting the spaying and neutering of community cats. Louise highlights some of the resources available on the Alley Cat Rescue website, including the contact information for Cat Action Teams in each state. Louise and Deborah touch on how Alley Cat Rescue educates the general population about TNR. They also discuss veterinary challenges, cat behavior, and how to get involved in TNR. To learn more about Alley Cat Rescue, visit their website.

“Our whole lives are really to get the word out that this is the solution.” – Louise on TNR This episode is sponsored in part by <a href="https://www.communitycatspodcast.com/doobert" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Doobert.com</a>, and <a href="https://www.communitycatspodcast.com/maddies502" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Maddie's Fund</a>. In this episode, Stacy talks with Louise Holton, Founder of Alley Cat Rescue, and Deborah Holzer, Development Assistant at Alley Cat Rescue. Louise founded National Cat Protection Association in 1997 as the nation’s first national cat protection association and an organization that advocates for all cats. In their conversation with Stacy, Louise and Deborah talk all about community cats. The pair touches on some of the campaigns spearheaded by Alley Cat Rescue. Debbie describes the Global Feral Fix Challenge, an annual initiative promoting the spaying and neutering of community cats. Louise highlights some of the resources available on the Alley Cat Rescue website, including the contact information for Cat Action Teams in each state. Louise and Deborah touch on how Alley Cat Rescue educates the general population about TNR. They also discuss veterinary challenges, cat behavior, and how to get involved in TNR. To learn more about Alley Cat Rescue, visit their <a href="http://www.saveacat.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">website</a>.

Campaigns for Community Cat Education with Louise Holton, Founder of Alley Cat Rescue and Co-Founder of Alley Cat Allies, and Deborah Holzer, Development Assistant at Alley Cat Rescue

Niki Cochran

Interview! Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue “Just because you’re getting the [positive] combo test … that doesn’t mean ‘death sentence’. That means ‘OK, now I have to go and educate myself about what that combo test result is.’ ” Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue in Washington, DC, has been a cat lover her whole life. Her career in animal welfare began when she took a job as an animal control officer, and included time spent at a large, open-intake shelter. At that shelter, she worked with a team of progressive veterinarians who challenged long-held beliefs about Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline Leukemia (FeLV) — including the belief that cats who test positive for these diseases should not live with other cats. In this episode, Niki and Stacy debunk several commonly held myths about FeLV in particular, including the idea that FeLV is extremely contagious, and that cats and kittens with it always live shortened lifespans. They also talk about the idea that FeLV and FIV+ cats can in fact co-exist with negative cats in home (and colony) environments. Niki herself has a cat with FeLV who is healthy, happy, and living safely with non-FeLV cats. Those cats are properly vaccinated and combo tested regularly, and have always remained negative. Niki feels that changing attitudes about FIV and FeLV is all about education. She encourages people to educate themselves and others about the diseases, and to refrain from thinking that a positive test result is necessarily a death sentence. She and Stacy discuss why community cat colonies should not be combo tested, and they encourage all of our listeners involved in rescue and adoption to give the next FeLV+ cat they come across a chance! To learn more, visit Alley Cat Rescue’s website at saveacat.org or email Niki at acr@saveacat.org.

Interview! Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue “Just because you’re getting the [positive] combo test … that doesn’t mean ‘death sentence’. That means ‘OK, now I have to go and educate myself about what that combo test result is.’ ” Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue in Washington, DC, has been a cat lover her whole life. Her career in animal welfare began when she took a job as an animal control officer, and included time spent at a large, open-intake shelter. At that shelter, she worked with a team of progressive veterinarians who challenged long-held beliefs about Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline Leukemia (FeLV) — including the belief that cats who test positive for these diseases should not live with other cats. In this episode, Niki and Stacy debunk several commonly held myths about FeLV in particular, including the idea that FeLV is extremely contagious, and that cats and kittens with it always live shortened lifespans. They also talk about the idea that FeLV and FIV+ cats can in fact co-exist with negative cats in home (and colony) environments. Niki herself has a cat with FeLV who is healthy, happy, and living safely with non-FeLV cats. Those cats are properly vaccinated and combo tested regularly, and have always remained negative. Niki feels that changing attitudes about FIV and FeLV is all about education. She encourages people to educate themselves and others about the diseases, and to refrain from thinking that a positive test result is necessarily a death sentence. She and Stacy discuss why community cat colonies should not be combo tested, and they encourage all of our listeners involved in rescue and adoption to give the next FeLV+ cat they come across a chance! To learn more, visit Alley Cat Rescue’s website at <a href="http://saveacat.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">saveacat.org</a> or email Niki at <a rel="noopener">acr@saveacat.org</a>.

Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue

Brianna Grant

Interview! Brianna Grant, Communications Associate at Alley Cat Rescue “We believe in protecting all cats, no matter what area they are in.” Brianna was always involved with cats and found a particular sweet stray when she was younger that broke her heart with how bad of shape it was in. She spent the next few months taking care of this little stray and in the process, learned a lot about TNR and community cats. Because of this, her passion for animal advocacy was born! When she went to school at Tutfts for her degree, she worked a lot with FIV+ cats and now she works with them at Alley Cat Rescue, as well. They focus on protecting domestic and free-roaming cats and are involved in animal advocacy at a local, national and international level. A new hot topic that Alley Cat Rescue is working on in an advocacy campaign is the feral cat bounty program that has been implemented in Australia. Hunters can go out and kill cats and bring in their scars to the government for money! Clearly, there are many who are very opposed to this and find it counterproductive towards actually reducing the population. Right now, no hunters have claimed the bounty and Brianna is hoping that with the large scale media attention that is being targeted around this, it will bring the bounty to an end. Despite studies that have shown how effective TNR can be in Australia, the government still does not support it and instead is focused on funding other, more cruel ways to eradicate the cat population. Currently, 137,000 signatures have been collected in an online petition about reversing this bounty and 16,000 of these have come from local Australians. Locals are worried about their domestic cats who may wander out and innocently get scalped for money by mistake. For more information, head over to saveacat.org.

Interview! Brianna Grant, Communications Associate at Alley Cat Rescue “We believe in protecting all cats, no matter what area they are in.” Brianna was always involved with cats and found a particular sweet stray when she was younger that broke her heart with how bad of shape it was in. She spent the next few months taking care of this little stray and in the process, learned a lot about TNR and community cats. Because of this, her passion for animal advocacy was born! When she went to school at Tutfts for her degree, she worked a lot with FIV+ cats and now she works with them at Alley Cat Rescue, as well. They focus on protecting domestic and free-roaming cats and are involved in animal advocacy at a local, national and international level. A new hot topic that Alley Cat Rescue is working on in an advocacy campaign is the feral cat bounty program that has been implemented in Australia. Hunters can go out and kill cats and bring in their scars to the government for money! Clearly, there are many who are very opposed to this and find it counterproductive towards actually reducing the population. Right now, no hunters have claimed the bounty and Brianna is hoping that with the large scale media attention that is being targeted around this, it will bring the bounty to an end. Despite studies that have shown how effective TNR can be in Australia, the government still does not support it and instead is focused on funding other, more cruel ways to eradicate the cat population. Currently, 137,000 signatures have been collected in an online petition about reversing this bounty and 16,000 of these have come from local Australians. Locals are worried about their domestic cats who may wander out and innocently get scalped for money by mistake. For more information, head over to <a href="http://www.saveacat.org" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">saveacat.org</a>.