The Carbon County cat shelter is not accepting any cats or kittens at this time, and the organization says it is in crisis mode.

Carbon County Friends of Animals posted word of the situation Thursday morning on its Facebook page.

“Our phone has been ringing all day for several days. We have taken in all we could. We are completely overwhelmed by the number of cats and kittens.

“We are aware of the number of cats that need help and we apologize to those we can’t help at this time.”

The organization is asking for donations to help with the situation.

Get cats spayed and neutered

On Friday afternoon, Susie Yaich, president of Carbon County Friends of Animals, said, “We are completely full here. Our phone, especially this past week, has been ringing all day long.

“We’ve taken in so many kittens, also adult cats. We simply do not have any more room. We don’t have any more available cages. We are filled beyond capacity.”

Yaich explained what she believes to be the root cause.

“Probably the biggest problem is the failure of people to get their cats spayed and neutered,” she said, adding that anyone with a cat should get it spayed or neutered. “A lot of people are not doing that. It’s either a case of they’re just choosing not to do it, or they cannot afford to do it.”

Yaich mentioned the two adult cats that were dropped off and abandoned at the shelter Sunday night. Two carriers that held two adult and five kittens, were found in front of the shelter.

“Those two (adult cats) were someone’s pets; why they had to dump them off, I don’t know; maybe they simply ran into tough times and couldn’t afford to feed and care for them, or maybe they were just tired of them,” she said. “That whole situation could have been avoided if the male and female adults would have been spayed and neutered.

“The other problem is that everybody seems to think that veterinarians should be providing spay and neutering services at a low price. That’s not always possible, and we don’t have enough veterinarians around that provide a low-cost spay and neutering service. Most of the low-cost spay and neutering services are so booked up that they can’t even get cats in until the end of November, what’s going to happen is these cats are going to be reproducing.”

Yaich said a female kitten can get pregnant as young as the age of 4 months.

“Another thing is a nursing mother, once she’s delivered a litter of kittens, she can’t immediately get pregnant again while she is nursing her kittens,” she said. “By the time the first litter is being weened off the mother at around 7-8 weeks the next litter is going to be born.

“Cats are not like dogs; dogs generally will go into heat every six months, cats go in heat, out of heat. It’s different with cats than it is with dogs, they can have one litter after another after another.”

Yaich noted the problem isn’t limited to Carbon County.

“There is a cat problem everywhere in every county, and I don’t know what the solution is,” she said. “But I wish that some of the counties or some of the boroughs would establish some kind of a low-cost spay and neutering program.”

Yaich mentioned that No Nonsense Neutering based in Allentown has a mobile van and will do spay neutering at their facility in Allentown.

While Carbon County Friends of Animals tried to see if No Nonsense Neutering could come to their facility and pick up people’s cats and take them down to their facility in Allentown, Carbon County Friends of Animals couldn’t get enough people.

“For them to come here, they need to have a minimum number (at least 25 people),” she said. “Because we did not have enough, they had to cancel and we could not have it here.”

Yaich noted that anyone can go onto the No Nonsense Neutering website to set up an appointment and drive down to Allentown and have it done at a low cost, but added a lot of people aren’t willing to do that.

“What it really comes down to is these cats are not the ones to blame,” she said. “It’s a result of human failure.”

Yaich said the other issue that they’re facing is that the number of adoptions has decreased.

“I think that’s due to the fact that people are afraid to take on the expense of having another pet that needs to be taken care of,” she said. “Our cats here when they are adopted, we only adopt them out after they have been neutered and spayed. It’s all the result of the poor economy that we have right now. When you take on a pet, it’s not just the food, but also the veterinary care (that’s involved).”

Yaich admitted it’s been a long time since they were faced with a situation such as this.

“It is the worst that we have seen in quite a while,” she said. “This year has been quite bad.”

Yaich added, “As much as we would like to be able to help everybody, it’s just beyond our control.

“We do not get funding from any place; we run entirely on donations and fundraisers. Our costs for everything that we incur here, electric, utilities to pay, veterinary expenses, we have to buy food, we have to buy litter, all those things.”

Monetary donations may be sent to CCFOA at 77 W. 13th St., Jim Thorpe, PA 18229 or on the website CCFOA.

For food and supplies, check out the wish lists on Amazon, Chewy and the CCFOA website.

“We are deeply grateful for those who can support us and we send many thanks from the bottom of our hearts. Our kitties send many thanks also,” Yaich said.