Central Pa. animal shelters struggle with capacity as populations rise

Shelters are seeing more animals come through their doors as adoptions struggle to keep pace, leaving some unable to take in animals in need.

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  Katie Knol is WITF's General Assignment Reporter & Host.
  
  She graduated from Penn State University in 2024, earning bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science. She has also worked at WPSU, the News Lab at Penn State, The Daily Collegian and CommRadio.

Many animal shelters and rescues across Central Pennsylvania and the United States are at or near capacity as cat populations surge this summer and adoptions fail to keep pace. 

Kristi Kleinfelter, operations manager at the Humane Society of Lebanon County, said the shelter is currently caring for more than 210 cats and 50 dogs. Many live in the shelter, and others live in foster homes. 

Fostering frees up space in the shelter for another animal while also giving animals a temporary home outside a cage.

Even with animals placed in foster care, the Myerstown-based shelter has a waitlist of people looking to home their pet or a local stray. This means some animals in the community aren’t being helped.

“I feel that it is a community issue. It needs to be a community effort,” Kleinfelter said. “We only have so many cages and so many kennels.”

It’s an issue affecting communities across the United States, including in Texas and Ohio. Many pet owners are surrendering their animals as the cost of pet care rises, the nonprofit Shelter Animals Count found last year. Kleinfelter said the Lebanon County shelter is seeing that same trend, with unexpected pet expenses causing owners to give up their animals.

Adoptions aren’t keeping pace with the number of animals coming to the shelter, Kleinfelter said. But she said the underlying problem is overpopulation, rather than a lack of interest in adopting. 

One female cat can have about 100 kittens in her lifetime, and those female kittens can begin reproducing themselves. That can cause cat populations to grow rapidly. 

The most important action people can take is to spay or neuter their animals, Kleinfelter said. She noted the cost of veterinary care can be a barrier for some people, but she said the organization does outreach to help owners access care and keep animals in their homes.

Central Pennsylvania also has TNVR programs, which stand for trap, neuter, vaccinate and return. The programs give cats basic healthcare — taking the tip of an ear to show it has received attention — before returning it to its outdoor environment.

“A lot of people don’t even know what ear-tipping means,” Kleinfelter said. “A person sees a cat out in the streets with an ear tip, I don’t know that everybody would know that that cat is spay-neutered. Or if it doesn’t have an ear tip, it needs to be spay-neutered. I think education goes a long way with outdoor cats.”

She said people also feed outdoor cats without having them spayed or neutered, but that allows the population to grow further. Shelters and rescues recommend only feeding outdoor cats if they also participate in TNVR efforts. 

Heavenly Paws Animal Shelter, a cat-only rescue in York County, is also at capacity, President Ann Behrendt said. 

She said they typically have about 100 cats placed in foster homes, but they also have a waitlist of about 30 people looking to home cats, and they receive at least 30 phone calls per day about more.

She, like Kleinfelter, said getting cats spayed or neutered benefits the animal population.

And it means shelters don’t have to turn away animals in need.

“It’s horrible. It’s horrible for the community animals,” Behrendt said. “It’s terrible for us as rescuers who have to say no and see pictures of these animals that are in horrible shape. They’re suffering.”