Friend, winter is an especially dangerous time for community cats—and the weather isn’t the real threat.

Community cats, or unowned cats who live outdoors, are accustomed to life outdoors, grow thick winter coats, and instinctively find warmth during the coldest weather. The threats to their lives in winter come not from the cold temperatures, but rather shelters and pounds that do not have humane and effective policies. Too often, people with good intentions will remove community cats from their outdoor homes and turn them over to animal shelters during the winter.

But the truth is, in too many of these shelters, community cats will be killed.

Friend, will you send an emergency gift to Alley Cat Allies today to help us end lethal policies and educate communities on how to truly protect cats—in winter and every day?

Help us educate communities on the facts: Cats have always lived outdoors and thrive in all varieties of locations, weather conditions, and climates. They are well adapted to their environments and know where to find food and shelter from the elements. In many cases, they even have caregivers who feed and watch out for them.

Caregivers should not bring community cats to animal shelters, unless they know the shelter will put the cat directly into a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program.

There are many ways community members can provide cats with extra support when temperatures drop, and Alley Cat Allies provides the information and resources to do so. They can build inexpensive outdoor shelters stuffed with insulating straw (not hay!); provide feeding stations and heated water bowls; and most importantly, share information with their neighbors to avoid bringing community cats to animal shelters.

And, critically, they can educate their local shelters not to impound community cats, who are not adoptable and highly stressed in a shelter environment, and instead support or provide TNR.

Your generous gift can save countless cats’ lives this winter, friend, so please don’t wait—donate today and help Alley Cat Allies educate communities on how to truly protect community cats this winter season.

For the cats,

Alley Cat Allies