Humane Society of Yuma asks for help as kitten season surges

The Humane Society of Yuma was already feeling the squeeze of kitten season with about 85 kittens in the shelter, a pace that has begun to overwhelm staff and volunteers as the busiest months arrive. The shelter is asking Yuma County residents to step in now with foster homes, adoption, volunteer help and donations that can keep newborn kittens alive through the spring surge.

This year’s goal is blunt and ambitious: no healthy kitten that enters the shelter will be euthanized. To get there, Humane Society of Yuma is building a kitten squad of volunteers, and no prior experience is required because training will be provided. The shelter is especially looking for people who can foster fragile litters, feed newborns and help with the round-the-clock care that kittens need early in life.

The need is not new in Yuma. In April and May 2024, Executive Director Annette Lagunas said the shelter gets “probably over 400 kittens” during those two months alone. That same spring, the shelter had hit max capacity and was taking in several kittens a day. A year earlier, Humane Society of Yuma said it took in 686 animals in April, with about half of them cats and roughly 90% of those cats being kittens or mothers birthing kittens. In 2024, the shelter also reported taking in more than 7,000 animals the year before, nearly 3,000 of them cats.

The churn is driven by the region’s cat population and Arizona’s climate. Humane Society of Yuma has said warming temperatures trigger kitten season in Yuma County, where cats can have one to three litters a year, with one to eight kittens per litter. The shelter has leaned on trap-neuter-return as a key long-term strategy to reduce the feral cat population, but spring still brings a flood of newborns that strain space, staffing and medical costs.

People who find kittens outdoors are being urged to pause before scooping them up. Staff warn that kittens often appear abandoned when their mother cat is actually nearby, and separating them too soon can do more harm than good. Keeping watch, rather than moving them immediately, can give a mother a chance to return and care for them.

The shelter is also asking for practical supplies that support foster care and newborn survival, including heating pads, KMR kitten milk replacer, baby wipes, Miracle nipples and monetary donations. Humane Society of Yuma is at 4050 S. Avenue 4 1/2 E in Yuma and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. With kitten season fully underway, those supplies and foster homes may be the difference between crowding and survival.