Over the weekend, officials with the Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter stopped intakes at the facility due to the shelter being at capacity with no more room to accept animals.

“We’re busting at the seams,” Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter Director Shannon Posada said on Monday as she and shelter staff worked to find places for animals. “We are overwhelmed with cats.”

During a recent meeting of the Animal Shelter Board, Posada told Board members the shelter was nearing capacity and might have to stop intakes.

“Every shelter around here, including ours, has a limit,” Posada told the Star on Monday. “Once we reach that limit there is nothing we can do until we get them out of here.”

Posada closed the shelter to the public on Monday so she and her staff could conduct a “good scrubbing” of the facility.

“We are completely full, and we need to deep clean to keep all the fur babies healthy,” Posada said.

According to Posada, several animal shelters in the area have had to stop accepting animals due to being at capacity.

“It’s not just us,” she said. “Everybody is having to close intakes.”

Posada attributes most of the overpopulation of the local shelters to pet owners not having their animals spayed or neutered.

“We had a lady that came in with two litters of kittens,” Posada said. “She had vouchers to get the cats spayed and just never did. She brought us kittens last year, too.”

“We have to get to the point where people are going to spay and neuter their animals,” she continued. “If people would understand just how important it is to help with population control then we wouldn’t have the overpopulation of the shelter and the feral cat population that we do here in Carter County.”

Posada said there is help available for those who have animals but cannot afford to get them spayed or neutered.

“The Humane Society is more than willing to help. East Tennessee Spay and Neuter is more than willing to help,” Posada said. “There is help out there if people will just ask and take advantage of it.”

To help ease the crowding at the facility, Posada said the shelter is running special pricing for adoptions. All adoption fees have been waived on animals that are spayed or neutered. The fee to adopt a kitten is $10. All of the kittens available for adoption have been de-wormed, received flea medication and ear mite treatments, and are up-to-date on the age appropriate vaccinations.

One other issue which the shelter is encountering, especially during times when intakes have been suspended, is individuals abandoning animals at the shelter after hours and on weekends.

Posada said when staff arrived at the shelter on Monday morning they found a tote box someone had left at the gate. Inside the box was a group of eight kittens, which Posada said were ill and need of care. There was also standing water inside the tote, she said.

The animal shelter facility is equipped with a surveillance system which records video both inside the facility as well as the outside.

“We are working with law enforcement to press charges against people abandoning animals at the shelter,” Posada said.

The animal shelter is also currently looking for individuals to volunteer at the shelter or who would be willing to foster animals waiting for adoption. For more information on becoming a volunteer or animal foster parent, contact the Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter at 423-547-6359.

The Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter is open Monday through Friday from noon until 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.