i know what they'd do with them. i also know that they'd be paid more than $4 per dog for many of the things they
could do with them.
no doubt that low income peeps can and will often do a damned good job of caring for their animals- it's just very easy to find yourself in a position where you have a horrible choice to make, having found out that your animal friend needs unexpected vet care likely to run into the thousands. it's great that you have a clinic near you that helps in that regard. we have a spay neuter clinic in the city near me (no use for us though as you need to prove residence inside city limits!) but i really miss the PDSA type system back in the uk.
i guess part of it is about choices for many people- i've had people say that they want to adopt a cat, but then want the charity that i volunteer for, to pay for their current cat to be fixed, because they can't afford the surgery cost (all our adoptees are fixed at our cost, and we won't adopt to homes where the residents aren't fixed).
when we explain that cats come with unexpected costs attached, and that their new cat may one day need $400 of vet care all at once- and ask how they would feel confident that they could cover that, if they can't cover paying for the spay surgery, then often it becomes rapidly apparent that it's actually more a case that they
could find $400 for the spay (they have $400 of credit, and could pay it back at a decent rate if they budgeted, etc), they just don't
want to shell out $400, if they could spend it on something else (like a nice cat tree, or a few months worth of cable tv subscriptions) and we'd pick up the tab - in exchange for them 'doing us a favour' and taking an unwanted cat off our hands (!).
the charity that i volunteer for is funded totally by public and company donations though (no government money), is no kill, and it costs more than $200 per cat just to get them adoption-ready (spay/neuter, shots, vet check, etc) so i'm probably biased in that regard- i know that the $100+ we charge in adoption fees enables us to haul the next kitty off death row at a high kill 'shelter', or start working on getting the next litter of feral kittens out from under somebody's back deck, as well as serving as somewhat of a reassurance that the new adopter wouldn't be so likely any time soon to find themselves in a position where they'd fret over the cost of basic vet care, or be reluctant to shell out for it.