Nico Dauphine, a PhD working for the National Zoo's Migratory Bird Center, has been charged with attempted animal cruelty. Dauphine, who has written and contributed to several papers regarding cat predation and who advocates against trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs for feral cats, was caught poisoning feral cats in her Columbia Heights neighborhood.

Back in 2008, Dauphine wrote a letter to a Tampa Bay newspaper saying: cats may be the single biggest direct cause of bird mortality, far outnumbering all other causes (including human hunters) put together!

Scapegoating cats not only fosters cruelty towards cats, but it also creates hatred for a species based on exaggerated reports (like those Dauphine has contributed to) and persuades individuals to take matters into their own hands by acting out in illegal ways (like Dauphine has also allegedly displayed).

Dauphine denies the charges and the National Zoo will allow her to continue working for them, saying she poses no threat to zoo animals.

Alley Cat Rescue vehemently disagrees and believes Dauphine should be removed from her position at the National Zoo until an investigation into these allegations of animal cruelty has been completed. Please sign the petition to stop her from working with other animals!

We the undersigned request the National Zoo to please remove Nico Dauphine from her position at the institution until an investigation into the allegations of animal cruelty that have been brought against her has been completed.

We find these allegations to be very serious in nature and expect the National Zoo to also take this situation seriously. All employees of the National Zoo should be expected to preserve the sanctity of life of ALL animals AND should a situation arise that brings into question a person's character and intentions, that person should be removed from his/her position until a full investigation proves otherwise.  

In fulfilling the National Zoo's mission statement, you owe it to all the animals under your care and to the citizens of the United States to ensure that all employees are providing the highest quality care to ALL animals and protecting ALL wildlife.

Thank you for your time and consideration.