3 kittens were dumped in a Pennsylvania rescue’s donation bin — volunteers say resources are already ‘very stretched thin’

They’re arriving at a time when rescues are already dealing with a flood of young cats. Kittens under five months accounted for 59% of cat intakes at reporting U.S. shelters and rescues in 2025, according to Shelter Animals Count.

Maggie Yenchick, the nonprofit’s assistant medical coordinator, stepped in to foster the three kittens, which were still young enough to need around-the-clock care.

“It’s just scary when they’re this young. They can’t regulate their body temperatures,” Yenchick told CBS News, adding that several hours is a long time for kittens that young to be without their mother.

The work was just beginning

The kittens weren’t in great shape by the time they made it to Yenchick. They were dirty and covered in fleas, but she doesn’t believe the men who left them were necessarily trying to hurt them.

Still, finding animals abandoned outside the building is nothing new.

“This is not the first time the cats have been dumped at our doorstep,” Yenchick said. “It’s heartbreaking every single time it happens.”

But when someone leaves an animal behind, the cost of caring for it doesn’t disappear. It usually lands somewhere else.

For some context, the ASPCA estimated in 2021 that the recurring cost of owning a cat was about $1,149 a year, with first-year expenses approaching $1,900 once vaccinations, spaying or neutering and other basics were factored in.

For rescues suddenly taking in multiple sick or very young kittens, however, costs can pile up much faster. Humane World for Animals has documented one grassroots rescue spending roughly $3,000 in veterinary bills to treat a single litter of four kittens with pneumonia.