10/12/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/1J36gJRY1X/?mibextid=wwXIfr
A cat does not to have to belong to someone in order to merit protection; it should not have to be impounded by a shelter, approved by a neighbor, or have to fight against another recycled myth in order to survive. Nevertheless, all over America "homeless" community cats are killed, forced from the places they live in, denied food and left without assistance while the people looking after them are treated as criminals.
What occurs when administrations prefer to ban compassion instead of HELPING them, and instead defend ineffective policies? Cruelty is not merely present in the act of killing; it is also inherent in the decisions which make killing possible, in the laws which fail to protect cats, and in the intentional blocking of humane alternatives.
False excuses have been going around for generations. They change over time, discover new audiences, and reappear in official policies under the guise of "expertise." Their object is still to get the public to accept the unacceptable. We know what these myths achieve. We can see the effects in shelters, on the streets, and in the lives of those people who refuse to turn their backs on vulnerable animals.
We won't discuss the value of a cat's life with people who are determined to justify killing it. We won't provide a platform for propaganda which aims at legitimizing killing. We won't allow cruelty to be presented as responsible animal care. At USA PAW, anyone who defends killing, facilitates cruelty, or uses old myths to justify killing isn't entitled to have their voice heard on our platform. We will delete such content as soon as we see it, ban the individuals in question, and continue with our life-saving work.
There is no point in coming up with a new excuse since there are already humane solutions. TNR slows the endless cycle of reproduction and helps to establish stable, managed colonies. Cats that are friendly can be reunited with their owners or be placed up for adoption. Veterinary care, easy access to sterilization, support for caregivers, and responsible shelter practices meet real needs without requiring healthy cats to lose their lives.
It doesn't follow that leaving an animal behind is a lifesaving measure. HASS and TNR are not synonymous. A frightened, unsocialized cat in an existing colony is quite different from a friendly pet that has been abandoned, or a lost cat which is struggling, desperately in need of help. Responsible TNR deals with colonies but at the same time acknowledges that socialized and human-dependent cats might require a different result. To refuse to provide help and then call that a policy is not compassionate. Saying you have a No Kill policy while at the same time abandoning animals is not actually a No Kill policy... It's HASS and laziness.
It is up to the organizations who have the authority to protect animals to enforce the laws against cruelty, stop penalizing those who look after animals, remove the bans on feeding, provide funding for humane initiatives, make sure that shelters are held to account and implement the No Kill Equation rather than considering it acceptable that healthy and treatable animals should die.
What we want to do is put an end to killing. We do not wish to make it easier to talk about killing. STOP KILLING CATS NOW.
Cats have a right to live; the people who are looking after them should be given support not persecuted, and the myths that are used as an excuse for killing them should not have a foothold in a movement which is dedicated to saving them.
No excuses. No killing. Do not turn away.
