I'm surprised that....

[lilithu]

No, I don't find it crueler than shooting a cat. I can't imagine that those were the only two alternatives to the problem. How about calling animal control and letting them deal with it?

Jonny, I'm not trying to pick a fight, honestly. But if you call animal control, they are basically going to do one of those two things. They're either going to spay/neuter the cat and try to adopt it out. Or, if they determine that the cat can't be adopted, they will euthanize it. Granted, it would likely be done by lethal injection rather than a gun shot. I'm not sure that's less cruel depending on how good an aim the shooter is.