"I went to a Humane Society of the United States conference a year or so ago. They held a workshop on shelter killing, where the expert giving the seminar stated that:

"What we have done on ours is “humanely destroy” rather than the word “kill.” We’re not, we’re not killing them… “kill” is such a negative connotation. It’s… we’re not KILLING them. We are taking their life, we are ending their life, we are giving them a good death, we’re humanely destr — whatever. But we’re NOT KILLING.

"How did we come to be a movement that embraces the Orwellian logic that killing is not killing, that killing is kindness? They can offer all kinds of excuses, justifications, arguments. None of it is true. None of it has integrity. None of it should be acceptable to animal lovers across the U.S. When you deny responsibility for the killing, when you in fact deny that you are even killing, choosing to hide behind euphemisms like “putting them to sleep” or “euthanasia,” the impetus to change your own behavior which might impact that killing disappears, and the task of killing is made easier."

Nathan Winograd: No Kill Advocacy Center