BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Kern’s dog crisis continues as hundreds of dogs are put down every month because of overcrowded animal shelters. Concerned animal activists are on the move to help in their own way.

According to the Bakersfield Animal Care Center, one of the biggest reasons for our overpopulated shelters is because of abandoned pets.

“It’s sad to see so many of them on the streets being dumped every day,” Ivette Carles an animal activist said. “Here nobody wants cats nobody wants dogs. Look at the shelter it’s packed.”

Activists within the community are taking it upon themselves to do something. Feeding the massive colonies of street animals to even getting the strays fixed.

“We trap them, we take them to critters without litters, they get spayed and neutered and by law, you have to bring them back to where you found them,” Carles said.

Carles and other activists said they spend their own money to feed these stray animals and do their best to find them new homes around the state. But with all the driving and food the costs add up. If you’d like to get in contact with Carles and their animal activist group you can find them on Facebook at Community Cat Action Team Bakersfield California.

Overpopulation is happening at all shelters across Kern. It’s no different at Kern County Animal Services.

“Our shelter is always crowded. We’ve been crowded and I’m not being facetious, We’ve been crowded for 20 years,” Nick Cullen the director of Kern County Animal Services said.

According to the county shelter, it euthanizes about 100 dogs every month.

The same can be said for the Bakersfield Animal Care Center. The center is also overcrowded with multiple dogs in each kennel. The city shelter euthanizes about 120 or more dogs every month but in February that was about how many dogs they had to put down in a single week because of the storm that shut down highways preventing dogs from being transferred to out-of-state shelters.

“You adopt a shelter pet you’re saving a life,” Cullen said.

At the Bakersfield Animal Care Center the turn over rate for dogs is so high that the dogs you’d see one day most likely won’t be the same dogs you would see next week. So if you see a dog you like you better act fast.