Shooting feral kittens on site when shelters are full - Best practice?

I had never considered the question before. Re this story what is an animal control office supposed to do if the shelters are full?

SPCA wants humane officer who shot kittens fired

The officer was out of line. Still, is a quick death by bullet so much worse than a quick death by an overdose of pharmaceuticals? The kittens end up losing their lives either way.

Shooting an animal on private property when there is no immediate danger???

Especially with kids around???

Yeah, he needs to be fired - and maybe ordered to see psychiatric help.

Trap, take to shelter, humanely euthanize. Simple as that.

The story mentions the kittens being within a woodpile, so it could be that trapping them wasn’t feasible. Euthanizing animals via gunshot on site is not a good idea, at all, but in this case it might be somewhat justifiable, but it’s certainly not a best practice for other cases.

The kittens will be dead either way, of course, but killing them in the open with gunshots is upsetting to the homeowner and her children and dangerous.

If you decided firearms were the best way to handle a pile of kittens, a shotgun would be the right choice.
Using a handgun against kittens- on private property, with civilians present- is certainly against policy.

So, administrative leave during investigation, leading to termination and criminal charges.
Why do animal control officers have sidearms anyway?

In rural areas stray cats are routinely shot on sight. Not nice but much better for the envirement.

Some animals are not nice. Or you’re in a rural area where large animals may have to be put down.

In some jurisdictions, animal control officers are sworn police officers.

I would go with a 40 mm grenade launcher myself.

Seriously, I could shoot many animals, but cute little mewing kittens would be tough.

Generally, when the pound is full they don’t euthanize the cute kitties that have just come in first. They look at which animals have been their the longest and are the least likely to be adopted. They certainly don’t play Dirty Harry on a bunch of kittens. And if they are in a woodpile, you get out the Hav-a-hart trap and trap them using smelly food. Guy needs to lose his job and possibly be prosecuted for animal cruelty and/or weapons violations. Will he decide that there are too many kids on welfare next?

StG

Out of curiosity are feral animals routinely placed? Are they adoptable?

Do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya, puss?

I would think 8 to 10 week old kittens would be adoptable. How much younger are they adopted out when they aren’t feral?

Even if, ahem, informal euthanasia were the correct choice, you don’t do it in front of children. At least tell them you’ll “take care of them” or something, and then get out of earshot first.

I cannot imagine that there are any circumstances in which pulling out your sidearm and firing into a woodpile at a bunch of kittens is acceptable. Our officers would have delivered a trap like the one StGermain mentioned if he couldn’t get the kittens out himself.

Feral kittens are adopted out of our shelter if they meet temperment tests. Twelve weeks is about as young as they will adopt any kitten or puppy out. Until then they are fostered or kept at the shelter if possible. If not, sadly, euthanasia.

Ours don’t, but they do wear bullet proof vests when going out to residences to check on complaints. One of our county officers was shot and killed approaching a properly last fall.

This. There was a popular show on Animal Planet called “Animal Precinct” which followed ASPCA agents in New York City. The officers are sworn police officers with full investigative powers and power of arrest. They are often called in to investigate illegal dogfighting or cockfighting rings where there are liable to be armed and angry men in the area.

And sometimes they have to subdue some rough, tough 2lb kittens.

StG

My understanding with kittens is that younger than six weeks almost automatically tame*, often in a few days ( or less - I just helped trap five ~6 week old kittens out of my backyard and they went from spitting and hissing to handle-able in about three days ). Six - eight weeks is only a little harder. Eight-twelve weeks is increasingly labor intensive but manageable. Past twelve weeks old it is still possible, but now starts becoming time prohibitive unless you have long-term volunteers really willing to dedicate themselves. Even some adults can be at least semi-tamed, but it might actually take a year if it is possible at all, making it mostly more trouble than most organizations wants to spend resources on.

Four-eight weeks is generally considered the optimum taming window, which I think is about the standard start-finish age for weaning.

  • There are always exceptions. Ferals that never tame at any age and friendly adult ferals that will become happy house-cats with hardly any effort at all. But those are outliers.

Am I the only one who sees no problem with just leaving feral cats alone and letting them live out their lives as wild animals?

Not as long as you don’t mind fleas in your house, the corpses of dead critters in your yard, and the aroma of cat feces.

The kittens (or the fawns, or the piglets, or the pups) are the last ones you want to shoot. If you want to preserve a herd, shoot only mature males. If you want to decimate it, shoot the adolescent and mature females.