Article by Gwen Jones, Department of Family Services
(Posted 2025 October)
Elaine Miletta is deeply devoted to improving the lives of animals. For most of her life, she has been involved in animal rescue, adopting and rehoming scores of dogs and cats. She is the founder of two nonprofits devoted to helping cats – Animal Allies and Pets Limited. Through her work, hundreds if not thousands of animals have been placed in loving homes or received the care they needed. Her love of animals even extends to wildlife. Her recent donation of 100 acres to the Wildlife Rescue League will allow wildlife rehabilitators to help many more sick or injured wildlife in the future.
Elaine Miletta was born and raised in Bridgeport, CT. An only child, she inherited her love of animals from her parents, Edith and Andrew. Andrew was a commercial fisherman and an outdoor person, while Edith grew up with pet dogs. Miletta had pet cats throughout her childhood. Unusual for the time, her parents cared for animals without homes, feeding a colony of feral cats and taking them to the vet. Later in life, the couple was deeply devoted to their pair of chihuahuas, Queenie and Tammy, and Miletta credits the dogs with improving her parents’ quality of life in their later years.
Miletta attended a parochial grammar school and high school before enrolling at the University of Bridgeport. She was initially on a premed track before switching her major to chemistry. While still in school, she met and began dating Joseph (Joe) Miletta. After graduating, she worked as a chemist in various labs. She and Joe were married in 1968 and later moved to Virginia.
Joe was a nuclear physicist, and his job required him to travel often. Although she worked full-time, Miletta missed Joe so she sought out friends. She began playing bridge with a group of women and became close friends with a woman who volunteered with an animal rescue group called Friends of Homeless Animals (FOHA). Founded in 1973 by Anne Lewis, FOHA is a no-kill organization devoted to caring for animals and finding them loving homes. “I think life takes certain turns that gets you involved one way or another,” Miletta says. In no time, she became active with FOHA, hosting bake sales for the organization. Anne Lewis was often focused on finding homes for dogs, so she relied on Miletta to find homes for cats.
Miletta’s animal rescue activities went beyond her work with FOHA. She found animals on the street and brought them home, re-homing some and keeping others. Having grown up with pet dogs, Joe wasn’t sure if he liked cats, but it didn’t take long to change his mind. Miletta brought home a small Siamese kitten who charmed Joe. “She changed him around like you wouldn’t believe. She would get into his suitcase if he was going somewhere and scold him when he came back,” she says. After that, Joe became very supportive of Miletta’s rescue work and was unphased each time she brought another animal home.
On one occasion, Miletta rescued a little calico cat during a trip to Mexico. Waiting for Joe to pick her up from Dulles Airport, she worried what his reaction would be to her latest rescue. “I thought he was going to say, ‘What are you doing bringing this cat back from Mexico?’ He didn’t – he just took it as a matter of fact,” she recalls. The cat, Molly, became a favorite of the couple, entertaining them by dragging sneakers around by the shoelaces.
The number of pets the couple had varied over the years. When Joe’s father died, they adopted his dog, Rags. Later, when Joe’s brother, who was also involved in animal rescue died, they took in his six dogs and four cats. The couple thought of the animals as family. “We didn’t have children, but our pets were an essential part of our lives,” says Miletta.
Miletta and a friend often split the cost to spay or neuter the cats they found, which became quite pricey. To offset some of the cost, they began accepting donations. Realizing that donors should get a tax benefit from their donations, Miletta founded the nonprofit Animal Allies in 1984. The mission of Animal Allies is rescue, rehabilitation, and re-homing of companion animals in Northern Virginia. In addition to their growing team of volunteers and fosters, Animal Allies coordinated with other animal rescue groups and the Fairfax County Animal Shelter to find homes for as many animals as possible. “It was different back then. Litters of kittens were brought in (to the shelter) and euthanized without being seen. It was a difficult time for animals,” she recalls. Miletta is impressed with the progress the shelter has made over the years to reduce the number of animals being euthanized.
While working to reduce the number of unwanted animals, Miletta realized that a key component was offering affordable spay/neuter surgery for cats to existing pets owners. In 2004, she purchased a veterinary RV with a surgical suite and founded a second nonprofit called Pets Limited. The mission of Pets Limited is to provide low cost spay/neutering surgery and vaccinations for cats. Every Sunday, surgeries are performed in the RV on as many cats as can be accommodated. They also microchip cats so they can be reunited with their owners if they get lost. Over the years, demand for their services has skyrocketed and they now have a waiting list. Miletta says that the fees they charge for the services almost pay for the cost of the services.
In 2005, Miletta retired after 15 years working for private companies and another 25 years working for the Federal Government, specifically the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. Her free time was immediately consumed by her nonprofits. She spends many hours on the phone coordinating spay/neuter clinics, or in front of the computer, analyzing spreadsheets, going over financials and microchip records.
Miletta’s concern for animals goes beyond domestic pets. In the 1990s, while looking at listings of land for sale to build a pet refuge for Animal Allies, she saw a listing for 100 acres in Woodford, located in Caroline County. What caught her eye was that the property came with hunting rights for hunters. “I was really upset about that. So, I decided to buy it and buy out the hunting rights,” she says. Animal Allies eventually purchased property in Culpeper for their pet refuge, but the 100 acres in Woodford belonged to her and Joe. The property included a pond and stream, making it a perfect refuge for wildlife. “One day when I was there and I was looking over the pond, there was a stick-like creature, and it was a huge crane. I thought that is so amazing,” she says. Eventually, they built a small home on the property, which they rented out.
To ensure that the property remained a refuge for wildlife, the Milettas decided to donate the land to the Wildlife Rescue League in 2023. “I said if you’re interested, I really would like to donate the property to you. It would make me feel really good to have something that I can see materialize before something happens to me versus just leaving it to someone not knowing what they’re going to do,” she explains. Calling the donation a transformative gift, the Wildlife Rescue League plans to develop and open their first Wildlife Rehabilitation Center on the property. The center will include daily wildlife intake, onsite medical care for injured and orphaned wildlife, hands-on training for wildlife rehabilitators and educational programs. Most of the property, 94.6 acres, will remain as wildlife habitat, including 50 acres of wetland. The WRL aims to open their new center by summer 2026.
In 2024, Joe passed away unexpectedly. The couple had been married for 56 years. Through her grief, Miletta carries on her work on behalf of animals. Her once robust brood of pets is now down to one cat named O’Reilly.
After decades of animal rescue work, Miletta is happy to see all that progress that has been made. Rescue groups, animal shelters, and individuals are all making a difference to reduce the number of unwanted animals through spay/neuter, find loving homes for animals without homes, and ensure that cats living in colonies are cared for and fed. “There are a lot of people who are little satellites who are taking care of animals,” says Miletta. No doubt many of these “little satellites” were inspired by Miletta's work.
Miletta's lifetime of work was recently recognized by county leaders. During the September 9, 2025, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board adopted a resolution recognizing Miletta for her five decades of dedicated service and contributions to animal welfare.
To learn more, volunteer, or support Animal Allies, visit animalalliesva.org.
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