Populations of stray cats have exploded across New York City — with some shelter organizers saying they’re facing “hundreds of requests daily” to take in felines and others taking costly spay/neuter operations into their own hands.

“I’ve been doing this since 2017 and it’s never been crazier,” Meaghan Licari, president of the animal rescue PuppyKitty NYC, said Monday.

Exactly what has led to the boom remains unclear, but Licari said a conflation of factors stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic — increased pet adoptions, the temporary halt of the city’s spay-neuter services, coupled with recent inflation and rising animal healthcare costs — are likely candidates.

“It’s so out of control and impossible for a privately run rescue to keep up with this,” she said, explaining she gets “hundreds of requests daily” to pick up cats found on the streets.

Licari said she doesn’t know how many cats are living on the streets, but quoted rough estimates other organizations have given ranging from 500,000 to 1 million.

“I don’t think anyone will ever really know,” she said.

Will Zweigart, the founder of the Brooklyn nonprofit Flatbush Veterinary Clinic, which opened the doors to its new facility Monday, attributed “spiraling cat populations” to rising veterinary costs.

“We’re seeing dumped cats everywhere. Kittens put outside in boxes. It’s worse than ever,” he said.

The cat crisis forced the city’s animal care agency, Animal Care Centers of New York City, to shut down “cat intake centers” at three of its facilities earlier this month. And dogs aren’t faring much better — ACC saw a 77% spike in canine intakes in June compared to last year, with pups staying in already overpopulated shelters for up to 14 days, instead of the usual five or seven.

Ryan Tarpey, community program manager at Flatbush Veterinary Clinic, said the cats they’re finding have been increasingly friendly in recent years, suggesting they were domestic cats that have either escaped — or worse, were dumped on the streets by their cold-hearted owners.

“What happens is if they don’t get spayed or neutered, these inside pets, they mature and get into their reproductive years, and they escape and get out, or they tear up your house until you let them out. The reproductive urge is strong,” he said.

In 2016, Zweigart began roaming the streets as a volunteer capturing strays so they could be neutered, then released or given over to rescues. By 2018, he’d grown his efforts into a nonnonprofit called Flatbush Cats, and has now taken it a step further.

On Monday afternoon, Flatbush cut the ribbon on its sprawling new facility where Zweigart hopes to provide spay/neuter services at a fraction of the cost of private care — about $225 per procedure instead of the $600 to $1,200 charged at some clinics.

Exact prices won’t be finalized until September, but Zweigart plans to offer even lower rates to pet owners and rescue groups alike based on their financial needs and barriers.

“This facility will also allow us to double our TNR [trap, neuter, return] and rescue operations,” he said, estimating Flatbush would be able to perform 7,500 operations a year at its new facility.

The new clinic received some support from the city — on Monday, Councilmember Justin Brannan presented Flatbush with a check from City Hall worth $150,000.

“This is just the start,” said Brannan, who described himself as somebody who used to throw paint at people wearing fur coats.

“All those things are still with me — it’s no different than when I was 16 years old. Except what’s cool now is I can actually do stuff about it.”

Brannan explained that he not only wants to see clinics like Flatbush Veterinary Clinic all over the city, but that what’s most important is the city providing services with the support they need.

“You’re sort of subsidizing what the city really should be doing,” Brannan said of the clinic. “We’re taking great strides here just in simply opening a place like this and creating a place like this. The next step is to get the city to really identify that they need to be helping out and subsidizing this.”

“The city has got to step up and subsidize and put their money where their mouth is.”

Licardi echoed Brannan’s sentiments, saying the burden put on the backs of rescues in clinics was ridiculous — and a job the city should be taking care of.

“We’re basically doing the city’s job, which is animal control,” she said.

“They’re domesticated animals and they’re not meant to be living on the streets. Just like we don’t have dogs running around the streets we shouldn’t have cats.”

“It’s horrible for these cats, it’s so heartbreaking. They face abuse from people who look at cats like they look at rats.”

She said while she admired the work going on at Flatbush Veterinary Clinic, even their prices were too high for the average owner.

“$225 really isn’t low cost,” she said, explaining that spay/neuter operations should be available for as low as $40.

“Individuals who are low income are not gonna pay $225 to get a cat spayed or neutered.”

“We definitely can’t keep up with a spay/neuter that would cost $225 when our adoption fee is $200,” she said. “Right there, that puts you in the red.”

A spokesperson for the NYC Department of Health said the city was working closely with and providing funding for volunteers and organizations to humanely address the stray cat situation, and “actively discussing ways to better collaborate on this and other animal welfare issues.”

“It’s essential that those of us with cat companions get them spayed or neutered and not let them roam outside,” the spokesperson said.