MISSION STATEMENT: Friends of Roman Cats (FORC) is guided by the desire to help homeless cats through international cooperation and educational initiatives.  Our goal is to support and disseminate ideas and practices taken from the U.S. feral cat community and from a cat sanctuary in Rome known as Torre Argentina.  We believe that an exchange of ideas can benefit attitudes toward homeless cats in both the United States and Italy.

OUR ORGANIZATION has a dual purpose as the Mission Statement states  above. We wish to publicize the very different attitude that exists towards homeless cats in Italy.  In Italy, homeless cats are recognized as "free living'. They have the right to remain "free living"; they cannot be removed from the habitat they have chosen even if that habitat is in someone's back garden.  In Rome, Italy's capitol, cats cannot be euthanized unless they are very sick.  They cannot be euthanized simply because they are handicapped, and certainly not because they are considered a nuisance.  This Italian acceptance of all cats is an ideal we want to support in the United States. [Piera Bignetti has kindly provided an English translation of the Italian law condemning violence against pets and giving them certain rights.]

EVERY CAT whether owned or not should have the right to life and whatever care we can help it to find.  We wish to help change the common view here  that the life of a feral cat is not worth living.  We are particularly inspired by one cat sanctuary in Rome known as Torre Argentina. Torre Argentina not only cares for a large colony of homeless cats, it is trying to create a safety net for all of Roman cats. 

TORRE ARGENTINA has launched a number of initiatives over the last 4 to 5 years, to teach people not to abandon their cats, to teach people to appreciate cats as important human companions, and, most of all, to teach the importance of spaying or neutering every cat. To the best of their ability, Torre Argentina is trying to help caretakers of feral cat colonies all over Rome to sterilize their cats so the population does not keep expanding.  We wish to join Torre Argentina in helping to achieve these goals.  We wish to raise money to allow Americans to go to Rome to help Italian  cats by working at Torre Argentina, to see how things are done abroad, and to bring this international perspective back to the United States.  We also wish to help our friends in Italy develop spay/neuter programs based on models that have been successful in the United States, as well as other educational programs.