HOULTON – Cathy Davis, the president of the Houlton Humane Society, acknowledged Wednesday that staffers at the Houlton Animal Shelter were excited earlier this week when they managed to find individuals to adopt two cats from the facility.

The problem is, however, four additional cats came into the shelter that day, inflaming the already swollen cat population to a “critical, desperate” level, according to Davis.

“We have more than 200 cats in the shelter right now,” she said during an interview Wednesday. “There are cats everywhere.”

Normally, the shelter can accommodate 50 cats.

The animal shelter is a nonprofit corporation that works to provide shelter, care and adoption opportunities for stray and abandoned animals in southern Aroostook County. The Houlton shelter has contracts with 26 towns in southern Aroostook.

Last year, the humane society opened a new, larger animal shelter on Callaghan Road. The new facility is on the same property as the old refuge.

The shelter had planned to shut down its old facility, but it has been unable to do so because of the influx of cats. The old shelter is “full” of cats, according to Davis, and so is the new shelter.

“It is so bad that we have taken our dog kennels and turned them into community cat rooms so we have a number of cats roaming around the dog kennels because we don’t have enough cages and kennels for them,” she said.

The situation is raising the ire of pet owners who have come to the shelter to ask staffers to find a home for an animal they can no longer care for.

“We’ve had to turn away owners, and that is really upsetting some people,” she said. “We had a man in the shelter yesterday yelling and screaming because we couldn’t help him. By law, we have to take in the strays, but we don’t have to accept owner animals, and right now, we can’t. We don’t have the room. I know it is upsetting to people, but I don’t know what they expect us to do.”

Owners who come to the shelter to turn over their animals are giving a number of reasons for doing so, according to Davis, some of which are related to job losses and the downturn in the economy.

Other reasons are not as legitimate, she said, and expenses such as cat litter, food and veterinary bills are straining the shelter’s budget.

“We have even seen a larger number of dogs coming into the shelter, and we never used to have a problem with dogs,” Davis said. “Right now, we need people to adopt and we need donations.”

“I have a staff of nine people at the shelter, and it is hard to know from one week to the next if there is going to be money to meet payroll,” she continued. “It is just a very difficult situation, and it is hard on the staff to have to care for all of these extra animals.”

The shelter is planning a number of “adoptathons” and litter and food drives in the coming weeks to see if they can adopt out some of the animals and raise money to run the facility. The first is scheduled to take place on July 12 in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Houlton, while another is planned for July 19 in Fort Fairfield. Shelter officials also will be at the Aroostook Centre Mall in Presque Isle on July 26 and 27 for another adoptathon.

For information, go to www.houltonanimalshelter.com.

jlbdn@ainop.com

532-9257