A WCNC Investigation uncovered something most animal shelters don't advertise: Most euthanized cats end up in landfills or cremated. But there's another option you may not know about.

"I grew up on a farm and loved cats all my life," said Evelyn Young.

So when a mama cat began hanging around her backyard, Young couldn't help herself. She had to feed it.

"I felt sorry for her," Young said.

She even called her Missy. But before she knew it, Young had more cats than she could care for. So she called the Rowan County Animal Shelter. The animal control officer assured her the shelter would adopt them out.

"How could I live in Rowan County all my life and not know the real issues that happened there," said Young.

Young called a woman who had expressed interest in the kittens to tell her she could pick them up at the shelter.

"She says, ‘Oh no. You can't do that.’ She says they kill," explained Young.

Within two hours and the kittens and the mama cat were already dead.

"When we got up there they said they had been put down,” Young explained. “I said what do you mean put down? Well they were sick or they thought they were sick."

WCNC Investigator Stuart Watson asked Rowan County Animal Control Director Clai Martin, "Did your employee lead her to believe these animals could be adopted?”

Martin said, "She was not informed they were going to be put down."

Martin said in hindsight, the officer should have done things differently.

"Probably would of went ahead and told her right then they were going to have to be put down," said Martin.

But there's something else Young wasn't told when she called the shelter. The Rowan shelter sells adult cat carcasses to a biological supply company.

"Did you know that they get paid for these animals once they get put down?” Watson asked Young,

She responded, "No. I didn't know that."

LBS Biological pays Rowan County $3 a piece for cat carcasses. LBS in turn sells the cats to a supplier called Wards, which sells the cats to schools and universities for use in anatomy labs.

It can be useful for the students in high school and colleges,” Martin said.

LBS and other suppliers buy cats from most county shelters in our area, 10 in all. But our hidden camera investigation shows shelters don't advertise that fact.

When we asked Mecklenburg County's Shelter, we didn't get a straight answer at first.

The Mecklenburg employee said, "We have a cremation area."

We pressed further. WCNC Investigators said, "I had a friend that told me that some of the cats are used for research or dissected on."

"That can be, but primarily everything is gone into cremation," the Mecklenburg employee answered.

Gaston County flat out denied selling cats. WCNC Investigators said, "A friend told me some of the cats are cut up and used for research."

The Gaston employee responded, "No, we don't do that."

WCNC Investigators asked again, "They don't go to labs or anything like that?"

The Gaston employee said "No."

We showed our hidden camera to Gaston County Animal Control Director Reggie Horton.

"Is the employee being fully truthful with this person?" Watson asked.

Horton said, "Well I would say I think what we're dealing with is a grey area Stuart. If you were to say as you had called and asked to begin with do some of your cat carcasses end up with LBS Biological for educational purposes I think to a person my employee would say yes."

“An ordinary person walking in the door they're not going to know how to specifically phrase the question," Watson said.

Horton responded, "I would agree with that."

Shelters say the animals would be euthanized anyway.

Martin says the county had to put down more than 3,000 cats last year, but only 707 were sold to LBS.

"No. It's not about the money," said Martin.

So Martin says there's no financial incentive whatsoever to euthanize cats. He added, "The toughest part of this job is to euthanize an animal."

Young said she doesn't object to anatomy labs in principle, but she wishes animal control had leveled with her.

"I have several times just waken up at night and this vision or whatever. I see these precious little faces" she said.

There are two main alternatives to euthanizing animals: spay and neuter your pet, and low cost clinics are available through the Humane Society. Or you can always adopt a pet from a shelter. WCNC encourages adoption through the tailwaggers program.