Kitten foster families desperately needed at Los Angeles shelters

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- Kittens are flooding shelters around the city and county of Los Angeles. Whole litters are coming in, morning, noon and night.

Rescue groups like the Amanda Foundation, which held an adoption event at Pet Food Express in Beverly Hills Thursday, say it's at a crisis level.

"The Amanda Foundation has taken in over 30 kittens in the last several weeks. I know the city and county shelters have taken in over 2,600 kittens in the last six weeks," said adoption coordinator Tracy Jones.

Shelters in the city of L.A. have already taken in 394 more kittens so far this spring compared to this time last year. In the past few months, officials say litters have been coming in at an astonishing rate, and some think it's because of the drought and warm weather conditions.

"The warm weather is when cats and dogs will mate. They think it's spring, and because there's not a lot of resources for a lot of these strays to get, they come into the residential area looking for food and water, [of] which there's none due to the drought, so then they end up coming into our shelter because people are finding them on the streets and their backyard with no resources," said Veronica Perry, New Hope Program Coordinator at L.A. Animal Services. "The mothers disappear, and we think because they're looking for food."

Volunteers are urging people to rescue these kittens and give them a good home, even if it's just to foster them for a while until they're strong enough to be adopted. Shelters can't place kittens under eight weeks old for adoption, since the law requires them to be eight weeks old and spayed or neutered.

Jones and Perry say it's a short time out of your life to possibly save a life.

"I don't want to see anybody euthanized. I know, ultimately, that's the reality if they cannot find fosters and if they cannot find homes, so again that's why we advocate so hard with spay and neuter," Jones said.

If you're interested in fostering kittens, fill out an application at www.laanimalservices.com/volunteer/foster-program or call any of the six L.A. Animal Services shelters and ask about the program.

If you can't make the commitment to adopt or foster, the public is urged to donate milk, food or other supplies, including pre-ween kits and litter.