STRAY ANIMALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23428, 18 August 1939, Page 13

STRAY ANIMALS

Sir, —As a Londoner 1 cannot agree with your correspondent who says dogs and cats are not allowed in thicklypopulated districts in England. Nearly every home has its dog or cat, or both, living in the house with its owner. Why, there are even clubs where the very poor pay a penny or more a week toward saving for their 7s 6d dog licence, and richer folk contribute to heli) those who cannot afford even this. Certainly one does not see dogs roaming the streets as much at Home as here, for most people keep their dogs indoors or in their own back gardens, taking them out on a lead. One of the first things that strikes me here is the fact, that dogs and cats are not held in the same friendly esteem as in England. The railways there even advertise excursion tickets for dogs ? to encourage you to take them on holiday with you. Boarding houses and hotels quote prices for dogs' board. Dogs are allowed on the top floor of doubledecker buses free, and at certain holiday resorts one pays to take small dogs inside trams and large ones travel on the top deck free. Personally I think one reason there are so ■'many dogs out of control here is because no one knows to whom they belong. In England one is compelled by law to purchase a collar and to have one's name and address engraved on it. This is nothing to do with the 7s 6d licence fee which one pays at any post office. Even advertisements in papers received from Home show how dogs and cats share one's house. One is of [ a mother cleaning a stove while sonny plays tin the floor with dog and cat. Another shows a dog on a chair having his lead fastened on while mother i says she is leaving the dinner to cook itself in her new oven. Your correspondent has evidently never been in the really poor, thicklypopulated parts at Home, where one daily hears the cat's-meat man calling his -wares up and down the streets; and seen the people coming to their doors and buying Jd worth on a wooden skewer. The cat's meat is mainly cooked horseflesh. After seeing the cats flock out when the man calls, one could never say there were no cats in thicklypopulated districts at Home. D..M. Griffiths.