BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Animal shelters overcrowded with cats say they have no choice but to euthanize the felines to make room for more cats. But they're not the only ones overcrowded. Animal control said cat rescues which would otherwise take the cats are filled to capacity themselves. We spoke to one local rescue to see if that's true and how they feel about the issue.

"You're a spoiled rotten princess aren't you?" said Peggy Soltis to her 1-year-old rescued cat named Princess.

Princess wouldn't be so lucky had she not been rescued from the county shelter last year. Soltis from the Orphan Kitten Rescue and Adoption (OKRA) rushed to rescue Princess knowing not many people would want to adopt a parapalegic cat. But not many people are adopting cats at all, creating an 82 percent euthanasia rate for animal control.

"It breaks my heart," said Soltis.

In 2009, nearly 11,000 cats were euthanized out of nearly 14,000 cats brought into the shelter.

"People are just not adopting as many cats. We don't have as many rescues that want to rescue the cats. We don't have shelters that want to transfer cats to their shelters," said Guy Shaw of County Animal Control.

Shaw said other shelters and cat rescues are overcrowded themselves. Soltis says her kitten rescue became badly overcrowded twice last year because people were just leaving cats at her doorstep.

"Usually they just put a carrier down and there's a cat or two or three and last year we had six in a guinea pig cage," said Soltis.

OKRA no longer takes in abandoned cats. Its focus is rescuing as many cats from the shelter as possible.

"Its hard. Its like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon," said Soltis.