“It is not a cat problem. It is a human problem.”

That has become a sort of catchphrase for Donna Crum, Carbon County’s humane officer, when speaking about the area’s feral, free-roaming or abandoned cat population.

“I keep trying to instill that,” she says.

The saying seemed especially true last week, after two rescue operations — one in White Haven and the other in Lansford — produced more than 30 cats in need of medical attention and food.

Crum said for the White Haven rescue, she had to obtain a warrant through the district attorney’s office. She also had to secure permission to search the dwelling, an abandoned trailer, from the entity who owned the land on which the house resided.

On Friday, July 19, rescuers recovered a single female cat from the trailer, who had just given birth to a litter of four. One kitten was dead on the scene.

Crum and others made a plan for rescuing the remaining felines that night.

“When you’re getting 20-something cats, you kind of have to make a plan, make sure you have places for them to go, people to transport, people to help and enough resources,” Crum said. “All of that had to be put in place.”

“With the extreme heat,” she added, “we were dealing with limited time.”

Rescuers returned to the trailer Saturday morning. They had to wear respirators in the home, which was littered with feces and urine. The trailer also lacked electricity and running water.

A total of 25 cats were found, three of which were pregnant. Crum said charges in the case are pending.

Local rescues step in

When Denise Sebelin got a call from Crum asking if Carbon County Friends of Animals had room, Sebelin went to the Jim Thorpe shelter to see how many cats it could take.

The situation might have been stressful, but Sebelin — the organization’s vice president — wasn’t necessarily surprised. She said calls like that come in on a daily basis.

“It kind of happens every day,” Sebelin said. “It’s the animals that actually pay the price.”

The shelter was able to accept six cats, including three newborn kittens, who were added to its already 200-plus feline population. All six are orange tabbies.

“We’re pretty full,” Sebelin noted.

Of the overrun trailer, Sebelin said the situation could have easily been avoided.

“If this person, whoever he or she was, had two cats, and they (got) at least one of them spayed or neutered, they wouldn’t have 25 cats,” she said.

Four cats were taken to The Cat Shack in Trexlertown; the Lehighton Animal Hospital accepted some as well. The majority of the animals found, Crum said, are being temporarily taken care of by the St. Francis Animal Hospital in Tamaqua, owned by Dr. Dawn Mriss.

“It’s very difficult to find people that are willing to help,” Diane Sharpless, a Cat Shack volunteer who helped place some of the felines found in White Haven into local rescues, said of the process. “I got a lot of no’s before I got some yeses.”

“If Donna hadn’t been able to get in there when she did,” Sharpless continued, “I don’t think there would have been many of them that survived.”

A Facebook fundraiser for the cats’ care and supplies has also raised $340 as of Friday afternoon.

The need for accountability

While dealing with the incident in White Haven, Crum received another cat complaint about a home in Lansford. A resident was housing an undisclosed number of cats in a flea-infested dwelling and needed help.

Those cats currently remain in the residence, but are receiving medical care and being fed.

Neither rescue could compare to one that took place in January 2018, Crum pointed out, where 20-odd dead cats and five living ones were found amid the rubble of a condemned Summit Hill home. But she said all three point toward a lack of accountability when it comes to cat ownership — specifically, making sure owners have their animals neutered.

“When people don’t spay and neuter, this is what you get,” Crum said. “If you feed them, fix them.”

Cats rescued last week have been tested for feline leukemia and are in the process of becoming adoptable.