Nine years ago, the previous owner of our home in the country left 26 cats behind. We used a live animal trap, caught them, put them in a wire cage and took them to the humane society. Bad part was they got scared when we put them in the vehicle and pooped everywhere, it was disgusting!
I could never hurt an animal...hubby shoots squirrels because they have been stripping the bark off of his trees, which kills the branches. He has to do it when I am not there and not tell me about it.
I hope it was a no-kill shelter. Otherwise you might as well have shot them all. Dead is dead.
I hate to say it, but on reading this, the woman who rescued the cat should have taken it to a vet. The vet would have been able to tell her if it could have really been saved. The Humane Society will put cats to death suffering from nothing more than abcesses.