THE BITERS BIT.

Bruce Herald, Volume LII, Issue 23, 23 March 1916, Page 4

THE BITERS BIT.

The people of Witham. Essex, are greatly concerned about the mortality of cats within the town. It is said that at least 100 have - passed away within a recent week or two. This mortality is a social inconvenience, for Witham is a happy home of the domestic rat, and the cats are the police who kept this hungry and lawless community in order. In the High Street houses and shops stretch in a line for a quarter of a mile and from one e»d to the other the rats have established a right of way. By night they scamper in platoons above the ceiling in search qf exercise audi food. "You hear the scuttering all night long," say the residents, 'but in time you get so used to it that you feel lonely when it stops." The rat-hunting cats are of famous local strains. Tliev would not win prizes at the Crystal Palace, but they can catch rats! One grand old tabby on an eligible pitch has been known to kill six or seven well-nourished rats in the course of a night. It is a deadly war and the rats are employing methods not sanctioned by the Convention of Geneva. This is their desperate scheme: Certain of the townsfolk have taken to putting down poisoned 1 food, and the rats eat the food, come out and squeal, and the cats catch, kill them, become infected with the poison, and die. At the present rate the cats will be exterminated before the rats. Mr Horner, veterinary surgeon, o. Witham, has noticed that only the good ratters die: cats of the hearth live to a ripe old age. He has made post-mortem examinations, and in each case the cat died from inflammation consistent with the effects of rat poison.