Foster carers of stray kittens are overwhelmed by the numbers and are unable to take in any more of them.

Animal rights activist Fiona Broome Camilleri, who fosters stray kittens, confirmed that all fosterers who partner with the Animal Welfare Directorate are shutting their doors to new intakes, because they can no longer cope with the cost and time it takes to care for these animals.

“This means that any kittens found on the street will either not be picked up by Animal Welfare or if they are, once released, will have nowhere to go,” she said.

“Good people at Animal Welfare call us on a daily basis begging for help, they try their best. But we are full. We can only imagine what happens to the kittens when we say no, and this keeps us awake at night.”

Currently 500 kittens being kept by foster carers

There are currently some 500 kittens being kept by foster carers.

In August last year, Animal Welfare Commissioner Alison Bezzina had warned that Malta was heading towards a situation where “kill shelters” would have to be introduced as shelters were already splitting at the seams and feral cat populations were exploding, with feeders unable to keep up with them.

Life has become more costly and no one is adopting- Maxime Borg

In January, Bezzina said stray dogs were being turned away from the Animal Welfare sanctuary in Għammieri as it was already housing double the number it could cater for.

“Months and months ago, the Commissioner for Animal Welfare, who has no executive powers, had publicly warned the ministry and the public that the situation was so bad it would come to this,” Camilleri recalled.

'We are in a grave situation'

Maxine Borg, who oversees kitten discharges from Animal Welfare to people’s homes on a volunteer basis, said adoption of animals was at a massive low. She appealed for people to open up their homes for fostering if they are able to.

“We are in a grave situation of the authorities’ own making because they should have worked on this,” she said.

“All the fosterers are full up and there are no homes. Life has become more costly and no one is adopting.”

Borg said fosterers saw this as a problem that the government should be addressing. The government had already been warned about the potential need for kill shelters and recommendations for more sanctuaries had been made.

“These warnings were made so there would be time to think and act before we ended up in this situation,” she said.

'We've truly reached the bottom, situation out of hand'

“But now we’ve truly reached the bottom and the situation is out of hand.”

The cost of vet care and food for animals was likely contributing to a lack of people willing to take in animals at the moment, Borg continued, with fosterers being stretched to their limits on what they can provide.

“It’s not healthy for these cats to remain in a cage,” she said.

“It’s a very ugly situation right now. I have kittens that I have bottle-fed since they were a day old and four months later they are still with me. There are no homes to be found for them.”