Cats is Dogs, and so is Rabbits, etc

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 2 June 1906, Page 42

Cats is Dogs, and so is Rabbits, etc

An amusing case, showing the looseness of natural history terms as employed by the British public, occurred in the Brompton County Court, says the “Field." A landlord summoned one of his tenants for keeping parrots in a Hat, an agreement having been entered into that no dog or other animal should be kept in the flat in opposition to the wish of the landlord. The defendant’s counsel maintained that a

parrot was not an animal, and he put it to the court that the landlord had no more right to forbid the 1 keeping of a parrot than canaries or goldfish, evidently regarding these two species as not belonging to the animal kingdom. The counsel is not alone in this opinion, for in common language birds are very often spoken of in conjunction with animals as though the birds were not entitled to the latter appellation. It would be interesting to know in which of the three great kingdoms of nature those who object to birds and goldfish being regarded as animals would place them. They can hardly be regarded as vegetables, and certainly they are not minerals. The presiding judge very quickly disposed of the ease, and declared that a parrot was an animal, and should not have been kept in the flat.