Cost to put a cat down: 2026 survey of 88 euthanasia prices

It costs a median of $72 to put a cat down, across 88 published prices from 88 shelters, humane societies and clinics in 34 states, collected in October 2026. We checked 379 provider websites to find them. Half of the prices fall between $49 and $102, from $20 at a county shelter in Mississippi to $200 at a humane society near Rochester, New York.

Those figures are for euthanasia itself, the fee to put a cat to sleep. Cremation and in-home visits cost more and have their own sections below: euthanasia with private cremation has a median of $217, and an in-home visit $351 before aftercare. All our end-of-life costs sit with the rest of our vet costs.

Prices vary by provider, by region and by what the fee covers. This is cost research, not veterinary advice. Ask your own vet or shelter for a written estimate, and ask what it includes, before you book.

How much does it cost to put a cat down at a shelter or humane society?

It costs a median of $40 to put a cat down at a municipal animal shelter, from 27 shelters, and $80 at a nonprofit humane society or SPCA, from 57 providers.

The lowest is a $20 owner-requested euthanasia fee at Jackson County Animal Shelter in Mississippi. Arlington Animal Services in Texas lists $23 per cat. The highest is Lollypop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester, at $200 for medical euthanasia, with the owner not present.

Lower prices often come with conditions. Twenty-two of the 88 providers say the owner cannot stay with the cat. Dane County Humane Society in Wisconsin shows the difference in one list: $75 plus tax with the owner not present, and $150 plus tax with the owner present.

Some shelters sell euthanasia only together with disposal or communal cremation, with no ashes returned. Ten of the 88 price it that way, and for them that combined price is the one we count, because it is the basic service there. Maryland SPCA, for example, charges $85 for a pet of 6 to 30 lb with communal cremation.

How much does a private vet charge to put a cat down?

Only four private clinics in this survey publish a cat euthanasia price, from $50 to $139, too few for a reliable median.

West Michigan Street Veterinary Clinic in Indianapolis charges $50, plus $39 if you want to be present. American Animal Hospital in Omaha charges $112 for cats and dogs under 50 lb, and All City Pet Care West in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, $120 plus the cremation you choose.

Broadview Animal Hospital in Rochester, New Hampshire, lists $139 for a pet of 2 to 25 lb on its aftercare form, with the body returned for home burial. Your own vet’s price will usually come on the phone or in a written estimate, not from a web page.

How much does cremation add to the cost of putting a cat down?

Communal cremation adds a median of $55 to the price of cat euthanasia, and private cremation with the ashes returned adds $163, comparing the prices at providers that also sell euthanasia alone.

Those add-ons compare the same provider’s own prices, at 11 providers for communal cremation and 12 for private, where euthanasia is also sold alone. Euthanasia with private cremation has a median of $217 across all 17 providers that list it.

Fox Valley Humane Association in Wisconsin lists all three for cats and dogs: $60 for euthanasia with no cremation, $130 with communal cremation and $230 with private cremation. Bucks County SPCA in Pennsylvania lists $50 for euthanasia, $50 for general cremation and $150 for private cremation, for a cat of any size.

Communal cremation means the ashes are not returned. If you want them back, ask for the private or individual cremation price, and ask whether an urn is included. Our dog cremation cost survey explains the kinds of cremation in more detail.

How much does in-home cat euthanasia cost?

In-home cat euthanasia has a median published price of $351 across 26 providers, including two national networks, with local prices in 39 states. We count each provider’s lowest listed price once, and aftercare is usually extra.

Two national networks publish most of the local prices we read. CodaPet lists 63, all as “starting at”, from $275 in Denver and Springfield, Missouri. Lap of Love lists 31 base prices, from $400 in Wichita, Kansas, to $660 in Boston, and its pages say the base price includes standard travel.

A house call costs about five times the $72 survey median, and the cremation you choose comes on top. Our at-home pet euthanasia survey compares 242 in-home providers.

Do shelters charge the same for a cat as for a dog?

Shelters charge slightly less to put down a cat: counting one price per provider, the cat median is $72 against $75 for dogs in our dog euthanasia cost survey, whose $90 headline counts every weight band a provider lists.

Fifty-three of the 88 providers name cats on the page, and their median is $65. The other 35 publish one price for any pet, with a median of $75; we count those as the cat price, as the dog survey did for dogs.

Eighteen providers price by weight for dogs and cats together, so shelters that charge more for heavier pets put a cat in their cheapest band. For them we count the lightest band a cat falls in and leave the heavier bands out. SPCA Monterey County in California, for example, charges $125 for a pet up to 39 lb.

How many providers publish a euthanasia price?

We opened 379 provider websites and local service pages for this survey, and 243 of them, 64%, published a cat euthanasia price.

That rate is high because we searched for the shelters, humane societies and in-home services that tend to publish fee schedules. How we chose them is in our survey methodology, and every survey is listed in our survey index.

Read the median here as the price at a provider that chooses to publish. Most private practices do not, and the price your own vet quotes may be higher. We found no counted price in 16 states, including South Carolina and Alabama, where none of the shelters we could read publish a fee owners can book.

Which cat euthanasia prices are not counted?

We left out 31 restricted prices from 28 providers, five providers whose price list is dated before 2025, and every in-home or packaged price.

The 31 restricted prices are left out of every figure because they are open only to county or city residents, to income-qualified owners, to owners who surrender the cat, to owners aged 55 and over, or only for aggressive animals. They are listed in the sources.

We also left out prices that are not comparable with euthanasia alone: packages with private cremation, in-home visits, behavioral or aggressive-animal euthanasia, a no-appointment surcharge and second options at the same provider.

Three shelters still list a price but say the service is unavailable, has ended or is a requested donation. One page gives two different prices, and one shelter lists its fee among redemption charges.

How do I get a comparable written estimate?

Ask every provider for the total in writing, including sedation, exam fees and cremation, so the prices you compare cover the same things. Our guide to what a cat euthanasia price includes lists the usual extras.

Some fees sit beside the euthanasia price. Philadelphia’s PAWS lists $30 for cat euthanasia and also an $80 one-hour appointment fee, so ask whether it applies.

1. Is sedation before euthanasia included, or charged separately?
2. Can I be present, and does that change the price?
3. Is there an exam, appointment or after-hours fee on top?
4. What does communal cremation cost, and what does private cremation with the ashes returned cost?
5. Do I need to live in the county, or surrender my cat, to use the service?

Prices on this page were read in October 2026 and change without notice. This is cost research, not veterinary advice. Whether and when to say goodbye is a question for your own vet, who knows your cat.

If you are facing this now, Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine runs a Pet Loss Support Hotline, staffed by trained veterinary student volunteers, at 607-218-7457.