STRICKEN DUMB ANIMALS.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17803, 30 August 1929, Page 5

STRICKEN DUMB ANIMALS.

PLEA FOR LETHAL BOX. “The little cat had a good meal, and my husband put it in a lethal box at midday, lie curled up comfortably and ,was soon off.” The foregoing describes the end of a stray, mangy cat which had haunted Dixon Street and, Herbert Street for a week or more, and must have aroused the pity of hundreds of people, says the Wellington Dominion. A few days ago the sorry-looking feline specimen was sitting in the sun in front of a shop when a lady witli a love for dumb animals approached the owner of the shop and said she would go and get a basket and take the cat home and destroy it in a lethal box. This she did, and the opening sentence of this item is extracted from her letter to the shopkeeper informing him that the eat had been put out of its misery.

Some further extracts from the same letter indicate that stricken waifs and strays of the animal world are not altogether friendless, viz.: “I should he grateful if you would notify me if any such cases come under your notice and I would try to. trace it if given the locality. . . . If it is in your power at any time or in any way to help forward the idea of a central lethal hox or chamber 1 feel it is one of the city’s greatest needs. Glasgow has separate societies for cat and dog work, apart from the S.P.C.A., but her population of course justifies and enables this. In 1927 the Glasgow and West of Scotland Dog and Gat Home received 14,285 cajs. In Wellington, I think the S.P.C.A. might provide such facilities in the centre for the easier passing of such an unhappy animal as a mangy cat, with its power of endurance under the distress of starvation and sickness. But since any step has to be talked about and advocated by responsible citizens before it can bo made, it would be a considerable help if you would bear it in mind if any opportunity arose to forward it. The cat can be a good friend to the business man."