PUBLIC OUTCRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1939, Page 11

PUBLIC OUTCRY.

CRUELTY TO CATS.

CLAWS TORN RIGHT OUT.

SOME AMAZING STATEMENTS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) f SYDNEY, April 8. StrathfieM Municipal Council has just declared greyhounds noxious animals, which means that owners will either have to destroy them or remove them out of the council's domains. This action is one result of numerous complaints in the newspapers during the past few weeks of cruelty to cats. Cats have been found with their claws cut down to the quick, or torn right out, and it is alleged that this is done byj greyhound owners, who then use the defenceless cats to give their dogs a chase and a kill.

So loud did the public outcry against this alleged cruelty by greyhound owners become that the Greyhound Owners, Trainers and Breeders' Association considered it advisable to hold a public protest meeting. The meeting protested strongly against statements associating greyhound men with such crueltv.

It "was stated that the National Coursing Association would finance the prosecution of any person against whom information could be laid of cruelly putting greyhounds at any animal, and if he was found guilty, would disqualify him and all his dogs for life. It was stated that there were between 3000 and 4000 greyhound trainers in Sydney who were "honest, decent, law-abiding citizens."

The editor of a greyhound journal maintained that the allegations were absurd. A cat's teeth were as dangerous as its claws, he argued, and the greyhound owners would not let a valuable dog near a cat, even if its claws had been drawn. On the other hand, he maintained that if a cat's claws were drawn to give a dog a kill, the cat would! he torn into shreds, but not a tooth-l

mark had been found on any cat discovered with its claws mutilated. To this a veterinary surgeon added the surprising information that it takes at least three men to hold a cat down during a minor operation.

Rabbits, as well as cats, are also said to be used in the training and blooding of greyhounds. This week a motor cyclist was noticed with a large box strapped on his machine, inside which were five live rabbits. He admitted to the police that he had been selling rabbits to greyhound owners and trainers to give the dogs a chase. "I am stiff," he remarked, "I have been at it only for a little while, and I know others who have been at it for years and have not' been caught."

He was charged in the Police Court with having had noxious animals in his possession and was fined £5 in default 10 days' hard labour. He said he had only been trying to earn a few shillings to keep his family together, but the magistrate remarked that he was liable to a line of £50 for the offence, which was a very serious one.