How do you feed/care for newborn puppies?

No, this is not the only way to learn. The way to learn about newborn puppies and how to care for them is through a mentor. With a good mentor you can get hands on learning about whelping and raising puppies without having to learn by trial and error.

Personally I'd rather see someone who is totally novice take on a litter of abandoned puppies versus the alternative...instant death. At least this way they are being given a chance.

This isn't someone who's breeding a litter and lost the mother, this is someone who is helping puppies that didn't ask to be born. I would have expected more helpful answers than most gave and less of the typical rude responses. I'm not pointing fingers but the point is at least the shelter is giving them a chance at something more than a needle, and since it sounds like a city/county run shelter they probably don't have the funds to have someone come in and raise puppies, so volunteers is what they have.

It's better than nothing, why not try to help and support someone trying to do some good in the world.