CATS IN COMMERCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 50, 23 October 1912, Page 3

CATS IN COMMERCE.

Cats have become important articles of commerce at Fort George, on the line of the Canadian Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, states a cable to the Sydney Sun. In British Columbia at the present time any w;de awake cat is worth about a pound, regardless of its appearance and pedigree. The reason for the boom in cats is that the lino of construction is dotted with contractors’ food caches, containing grain and flour, and these are infested with swarms of bush rats, which have destroyed vast quantities of food. The contractors arc looking everywhere for cats and the supply is far below the demand. Quito another story comes from the district of Columbia. A battue of cats lias been going on for some time, and up to the present more than 2500 have been killed by the police. The cat population of Washington is believed to exceed that of any other place on the globe. Even after all this slaughter, cats seem as plentiful as ever, and the commissioners have now decided to ask Congress to pass a law taxing cats in the district. The origin of this remarkable feline preponderance is traced to a hoax advertisement which appeared in a local journal about 20 years ago. The announcement stated that a thousand cats were wanted by a circus manager as food for his animals, a shilling being offered for each cat. The result was that more than 5000 were turned loose on the city, to found innumerable families.