CATS AT A PREMIUM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 246, 25 July 1940, Page 4

CATS AT A PREMIUM.

The cat-lover will take a just satisfaction in the suggestion now being put about that it is contrary to public policy to destroy any more litters of kittens and that the cat population of Great Britain must be restored to something more like its normal size if the

growing damage to foodstuffs by rats and mice is to bo abated, says the “Manchester Guardian.” The shortage is, of course, due to the heavy sacrifice of domestic animals made in the nervous days of last September. It is said that in London 75,000 cats and dogs were then destroyed. Manchester and Salford reported that at the same time 3200 eats had been brought for extermination to the veterinary clinics. The British Government’s ruling that no domestic animals would be allowed in air-raid shelters and that the feeling that pets might consume a needless portion of scarce ioodstuffs account foi such figures. The effect is now being felt in an increase in the rat population with which the rat-catchers cannot cope, and in the unprecedented value set in some parts of the country on even the most commonplace of eats. In these circumstances the cat is well worth its ration for its pre\ ention oi far greater inroads on foodstuffs than it ever makes.