Our Founders
Peggy Carlson, President and Co-Founder
Dr. Carlson has been practicing emergency medicine for more than 25 years. She has also written two chapters in a textbook entitled The Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine.
She has also spent much of the past 30 years working in animal protection both on the local and national levels. On the local level she has volunteered time at local animal shelters and has fostered cats for the shelters. On a national level she has worked with several animal protection groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine and Alley Cat Allies. She is currently the co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States. She has testified before Congress on the problems with animal experimentation within the Department of Defense. She has testified before the Maryland State Legislature on students’ rights to abstain from animal dissection. She has also worked with medical schools to replace their animal teaching labs with the nonanimal teaching labs that are used in the majority of schools.
Dr. Carlson has also written on several animal protection topics. She wrote a chapter on the use of animals in science and medicine in A Primer on Animal Rights. In addition, she has written several letters-to-the-editor and editorials on animal-related topics. She has co-editing and written a book on the nutritional aspects and health benefits of a vegetarian diet.
She co-founded Little Buddies Adoption and Humane Society with Louise Holton.
Louise Holton, Vice-President and Co-Founder
Holton, a South African, worked in Africa on conservation issues in the 1970s, concentrating on endangered species such as the cheetah. She also worked with the Johannesburg SPCA on cat overpopulation including pioneering work on nonlethal control of homeless and stray cats.
She moved to the US in 1986 to work in animal protection. She was the founder of Alley Cat Allies in 1990, bringing to the US her experience in working with homeless cats in South Africa and also involving her many British counterparts, biologists and veterinarians, who pioneered this work in Britain and in other parts of the world.
She has often been quoted in the media as an expert in dealing with cats and on issues pertaining to them, such as rabies control and wildlife predation. Holton has received numerous awards for her articles and newsletters, including several prestigious Muse Medallions, from the Cat Writers Association and has had the privilege of serving as a keynote speaker at the CWA annual conference.
Holton has been a member of the Summit of Animals, a collection of national animal protection groups. Holton has also been a member of the California Council of Animal Advocates, which finds solutions to animal overpopulation. She was a presenter at the Scientific Workshop on Feral Cats sponsored by American Humane Association and presented workshops on feral cats at the Western Veterinary Medicine Conference.
Holton served on the Advisory Panel of President Clinton’s Invasive Species Council. Holton is concerned that exotic species are treated inhumanely, and she was a strong voice on this panel for non-lethal control of all sentient animals. Cat Fancy Magazine recognized Holton’s work, and in January 2000 listed this as “one of the Greatest Moments for 20th Century Cats.”
She has been rescuing cats for more than 40 years, and is an expert in dealing with neonatal kittens, homeless and stray cats. Holton is also a world pioneer in promoting and implementing non-lethal control for feral cats. She advises groups in Australia, South Africa, Israel, South America and other countries.
