CATS AS LIVE BAIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 116, 12 November 1938, Page 9

CATS AS LIVE BAIT

CLAWS TORN OUT

A SHOCKING ALLEGATION

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, November 5,

The Chief Secretary, Mr. Gollan, has ordered an immediate police investigation into allegations made in Parliament that cats with their claws pulled out are used to train greyhounds.

"If true, this is cruelty _of the most abominable type, and I will see that offenders are punished with the utmost rigour of the law," he said. "Previously I have received complaints of greyhounds attacking small dogs in parks, and these reports are being investigated. If it is necessary to amend 'the law to ensure that offenders shall be adequately punished for such loathesome offences I will not hesitate."

The allegations in Parliament were made by Mr. Arkins, a Ministerialist, and Mr. Tonge, a Labour member. The latter said that protection for cats and other domestic animals was necessary because owners of greyhounds used them as live bait in training the dogs for mechanical hare coursing.

This protection, he declared, was necessary in the streets and parks, and also in the commons adjoining various country towns. Was it a fact, he asked, that many domestic pets had been destroyed because greyhounds were not muzzled?

Both the Premier, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Gollan said that the charges would be investigated, and if proved, a Bill would be introduced to stop the practice.

The charges were supported by the secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Mr. Lord, who said that the, society had long been aware that cats had been used as lures for greyhounds. "Every greyhound should be muzzled when outside its own compound," Mr. Lord said. "It is not uncommon to see a child or a woman in charge of five or six greyhounds which could break away to chase another animal at any time."