Feral cats are seen by many people and municipalities as "nuisance" animals, as are rats, mice, squirrels, raccoons, and insects such as ants. When people complain about nuisance animals to municipalities they are told to phone a pest control company. In municipalities where the SPCA has a contract to control pest pets (loose dogs and stray cats), the complainant will be told to phone the SPCA because the SPCA probably won the contract by using the sales pitch that only it would combine animal control with animal welfare. We have this sales pitch on record.
We have the proof that it was not more humane - from gas boxes to electrothanators, to diseased facilities, to heartless employees, falsified records, theft and fraud, and the killings - the killing of found animals minutes before the owner could return with cash (credit card refused); the killing of animals even though an adoptor has said they will be back in an hour with the cash; the killing of sweetheart dogs because they barked; the killing of bags and boxes of puppies and kittens by throwing them into the incinerator; the killing of dogs because they are old, or matted, or smelly. And even as recently as last month, the killing of animals because some are sick and so all get killed. This happened in May at the Kamloops SPCA. After it made some cats sick it killed 90 cats as "disease control". There can be no clearer proof that the SPCA is an animal control agency - not an animal welfare agency - than this example. This is not ancient history - this happened last month. Animal welfarists save, animal controllers kill.