It must be terrible to be homeless, on the street, to wonder where your next meal will come from, to deal with all the stares, the cold shoulders, the business owners and local residents who want you out of their neighborhood, the rain, the cold, the heat. I doubt that I can fully imagine the stress, distress, the pain and suffering that must at times simply overwhelm someone in this terrible predictament.
We could put them in shelters, and I know that many people are actively pushing for more shelters, better shelters, greater shelter capacity, but it's a plain fact that we just don't have room for all of them. Leaving them on the street, to fend for themselves, its inhumane.
Gas chambers and electric chairs seem particularly gruesome; they don't seem very humane. Lethal injection seems less violent. That might be the kindest way to kill them.
It's a big problem. An article in the NY Times reports that the 2020 estimate of 580,000 homeless people in the US is likely much too low given the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Here's a crazy idea: let's not kill them. Let's provide for them. Let's make vasectomies and other birth control methods free and something to be celebrated. Let's take a tiny sliver of our tax dollars and build free and very low-rent public housing all across the US. Let's make free cafeterias a part of these housing projects.
If this seems like the right way to go, I don't see a reason not to expand it in ways that will provide shelter and meals and birth control for homeless dogs and cats as well.
How should we kill them? We shouldn't kill them. Homeless humans, dogs, and cats are victims, not criminals, and certainly are not guilty of capital crimes simply for being alive and homeless.
In every case, in every circumstance, homeless is better than dead.
