CATS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 220, 18 September 1939, Page 6

CATS.

To answer the correspondent "J.W.H." of a few days ago, I wish to dispute his statement about cats being considered wild animal* in England. I cannot imagine his having lived there to show such ignorance of cats, but it was to my amazement "when I came over here seventeen years ago to see the treatment of what in England is a much cherished domestic animal, the eat. The country people over here whisk them out of their houses—even tlu> farming 'people do—and they are running >? 1 - around like wild timid animals; even some suburban people do that, too. You never see a cat sitting in front of the fire in a farmhouse or an inn as you do in England; you never see one without a eat there. I can go so far as to state that there is a well eared for cat in each hospital as a pet. Perhaps many readers will know of the big business that is carried on in cat's meat in London and how the vendors deliver it to the houses, while if a eat gets into a dangerous position on a ledge of stonework on a high building, as soon as it is seen there it is rescued and brought down to safety. I refer to this to show how highly cats* are thought of in England. As for the gardens over here, I venture to say it is an injustice to blame the cat for treading on the flowers and plants. Has "J.W.H." never seen cats scraping in tha bare earth and carefully picking their way • between the flowers, etc, f Straying, untrained dogs do a lot of damage both to flowers, plants and fences in gardens, and, furthermore, here in some districts are stoats and opossum*, not to mention the innumerable rats, some very large, running over everything and doing real damage to gardens. MORE CATS, FEWER RATS.