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British pet massacre

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Mass killing of pets in 1939

The British pet massacre was an event in 1939 in the United Kingdom
where over 750,000 pets were killed in preparation for food shortages
during World War II.^[1] It was referred to at the time as the
September Holocaust,^[2]^[non-primary source needed] and later
sources describe it as a "holocaust of pets".^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] In
London alone, during the first week of the Second World War around
400,000 companion animals, about 26% of all cats and dogs were
killed.

No bombs were to fall on the UK mainland until April 1940.^[7]

Similar events happened in mainland Europe, for example, the killing
of millions of farm animals in Denmark due to the lack of imported
fodder for them.^[7]

[ ]

Contents

  * 1 Background
  * 2 Incident
  * 3 Opposition
  * 4 Aftermath
  * 5 Remembrance
  * 6 See also
  * 7 References
  * 8 Sources

Background[edit]

[220px-Advice_to_Animal_Owners]
 
Advice to animal owners

A similar wave of panic had happened during the Munich Crisis in
September 1938, prompting the commissioner of Metropolitan Police to
urge the Home Office to establish rural homes for the voluntary
accommodation of cats and dogs, the major animal charities of the day
having been rebuffed by the government. The Home Office declined to
do so, despite the societies' offer to cover cost, and companion
animals were refused access to communal air-raid shelters.

In 1939, the British government formed the National Air Raid
Precautions Animals Committee (NARPAC) to decide what to do with pets
before the war broke out. The committee was worried that when the
government would need to ration food, owners would decide to split
their rations with their pets or leave the animals to starve. In
response to that fear, the NARPAC published a pamphlet titled "Advice
to Animal Owners."

The pamphlet suggested moving pets from the big cities and into the
countryside. It concluded with the statement that "If you cannot
place them in the care of neighbours, it really is kindest to have
them destroyed."^[8] The pamphlet also contained an advertisement for
a captive bolt pistol that could be used to humanely kill the
animals.

However, neither NARPAC nor the government made directives for it to
happen, and the former NARPAC argued explicitly against the routine
killing of animals.^[7]

Its chief officer was Colonel Robert John Stordy, DSO, of the Royal
Army Veterinary Corps who also served on the RSPCA's committee.^[9]
For the first time, professional veterinary surgeons, the police, and
animal charities were brought together in one official body; however,
no specific attention was given to companion animals nor their morale
boosting effect, a role which would be officially recognized as the
war progressed. Veterinary surgeons were asked to act without payment
as national service, 750 signing up to do so, however the lateness of
preparations in August 1939, only a few days before the declaration
of war, was to have devastating effect.

In his history of the PDSA, Frederick Montague noted that there was a
considerable panic about the start of the war, with pet owners
anticipating alarming ideas such as fire bombs "laying down a
white-hot fire round London in which millions would be trapped to be
drenched in agonising gases, while high explosives sucked out the
City's heart".^[10]

Incident[edit]

When war was declared in 1939, many pet owners flocked to pet surgery
clinics and animal homes to kill their pets.^[11] Many veterinarian
groups such as the PDSA and the RSPCA were against these drastic
measures, but their hospitals were still flooded with pet owners in
the first few days. PDSA founder Maria Dickin reported: "Our
technical officers called upon to perform this unhappy duty will
never forget the tragedy of those days."^[12] Writing in the 1960s,
E.S. Turner described the September 1939 killings as "a holocaust of
pets".^[6]

When London was bombed in September 1940, even more pet owners rushed
to kill their pets. "People were worried about the threat of bombing
and food shortages and felt it inappropriate to have the 'luxury' of
a pet during wartime".^[12]

Demand was so great that dispensaries ran out of chloroform resulting
in dogs being electrocuted to death.^[2] More than 80,000 carcasses
were buried in one night. ^[6]

Opposition[edit]

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, against the trend, managed to feed and
care for 145,000 dogs during the course of the war and provided a
field in Ilford as a pet cemetery, "where about 500,000 animals were
buried, many from the first week of the war".^[13]

A famous opponent of pet culling was Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess
of Hamilton, a cat lover, who campaigned against the killing and
created her own sanctuary in a heated hangar at Ferne.^[12]^[14] A
leading figure in the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society,
Douglas-Hamilton broadcast on radio that animals could be brought to
Animal Defence House in St James's off Piccadilly, London so that
they could be taken to a sanctuary created at Ferne House, in Dorset.
She went on to describe the animals as being like children to their
owners, and declared that

    We should be horrified if this had happened abroad. How can we
    explain such a thing to our foreign friends in this so-called
    animal-loving England.^[15]

Rupert Bruce-Mitford, a dog breeder and author, rebuffed arguments
about the lack of food or shelter as horseflesh was available and
gas-proof kennels were on the market, and kennels existed in safety
zones where pets could be evacuated to. He described the slaughter in
The Times as motivated by the inconvenience to keep them alive,
"which, of course, is no reason at all".^[citation needed]

Aftermath[edit]

Estimates say that over 750,000 pets were killed over the course of
the event. Many pet owners, after getting over the fear of bombings
and lack of food, regretted killing their pets and blamed the
government for starting the hysteria.^[1] It was not until a week
after the event that the Veterinary Record issued advice to its
surgeons, listing arguments they might use to dissuade owners from
having their pets killed.

By the middle of September the authorities started begging people to
keep their pets, if possible, because of the threat of vermin in
cities, and by 1942 the BBC defined cats as "doing work of national
importance" and spoke against killing them. For many, keeping and
protecting their animal companions was a form of self-sacrifice which
showed the depth of their own emotions in comparison to those who
killed them out of convenience, and was a way of maintaining normal
life. The National Canine Defence League declared,

    Do not have your pet destroyed ... At the beginning of the war a
    certain number of people did this; they have regretted it ever
    since. To destroy a faithful friend when there is not need to do
    so, is yet another way of letting war creep into your home.

In 1941 mass observation began to study the relationship between
humans and their companion animals, and despite the Waste of Food
Order 1940 obliging animal keepers to act 'reasonably', pets were
still fed by the sharing of food between humans and animals when
rationing of food became widespread. Such studies found that positive
animal-human relationships would not be willingly breached by the
public due to any state directive and, to the contrary, they were
deliberately opposed. It was also seen as counter-productive to
criticise the around 280,000 tons of food per annum that dogs were
eating, because of the resentment and unrest it might inspire within
society.^[7] More humane air raid shelter marshals were found to be
turning a blind eye to people bringing their pets in.

By 1943, the Army Veterinary and Remount Services were calling out to
the general public, veterinarians and welfare societies for the
public not to euthanise pets that could be potentially used in
military roles. Police forces were offered compensation for handing
over strays.^[16]^[17]

The event was featured in the magazine Woman by way of a short story
written by the author Christine Jope-Slade and, in summer 1940,
Thelma Evans, author, pioneer of the corgi dog breed, and confidante
to the British royal family, described a counter rumour promoted by
British black-propagandists as evidence of Nazi beastliness,
suggesting that three million dogs were to be destroyed in Germany
calling it a "hideous holocaust" and "the greatest slaughter in the
history of dogs".^[18]^[19] Gray, who bred the Queen's dogs, had also
sold two Chows to Reichsmarschall Goering and his secretary, two
Corgis to Joachim von Ribbentrop, and others among the Nazi elite,
including Scottish Terriers, the favourite of Hitler's mistress, Eva
Braun.^[citation needed]

In 2017, author Hilda Kean published a book, The Great Cat and Dog
Massacre, telling the story from a historical perspective and
concluding that the deaths inflicted on companion dogs and cats was
not so much part of a war but "part of normative human behaviour
towards animals otherwise seen as companions", and that the massacre
challenges the British people's perception of itself during the war
on the Home Front, both in the past and present.^[citation needed]

Remembrance[edit]

The bodies of many of the pets were buried in a meadow that has since
become part of the Ilford PDSA's cemetery.^[13]

There is no mention of nor memorial to them there, nor at the Animals
in War Memorial, in Hyde Park, London.^[7]

See also[edit]

  * The Great Cat Massacre
  * Social effects of Hurricane Katrina SS Animal issues

References[edit]

 1. ^ ^a ^b "What happened to Britain's pets during the second World
    War". Express, Clare Campbell, Oct 31, 2013
 2. ^ ^a ^b The Dogs Bulletin 114. Annual Report. London: National
    Canine Defence League , (December 1939). Page 2.
 3. ^ Calder, Angus. The People's War. London: Cape, 1969 reprinted
    1986. Page 34
 4. ^ Zeigler, Philip. London at War 1939-45. London:
    Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995 Page 74
 5. ^ People's War, European Review of History: Revue eropeenne
    d'histoire, 22:5, Page 742
 6. ^ ^a ^b ^c The Phoney War on the Home Front. E. S. Turner, Faber
    & Faber, 17 Apr 2012
 7. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e The Dog and Cat Massacre of September 1939 and
    the People's War, Hilda Kean. European Review of History--Revue
    europe enne d'histoire, 2015 Vol. 22, No. 5, 741-756 [1]
 8. ^ Bonzo's War: Animals Under Fire 1939 -1945
 9. ^ Robert John Stordy, RCVS biography [2]
10. ^ Let the Good Work Go on, Frederick Montague, Hutchinson &
    Company(1947)
11. ^ "The Pets' War: On Hilda Kean's "The Great Cat and Dog
    Massacre"". LA Review of Books, April 30, 2017 By Colin Dickey
12. ^ ^a ^b ^c Feeney-Hart, Alison (12 October 2013). "The
    little-told story of the massive WWII pet cull". BBC News.
    Retrieved 7 September 2021.
13. ^ ^a ^b Carter, Marie (13 November 2017). "Remembering the
    British 'pet holocaust' of World War Two". The Independent.
    Retrieved 29 December 2020.
14. ^ Campbell (2013) Chapter 6
15. ^ Douglas, Nina, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon. The Chronicles
    of Ferne. London: Animal Defence Society, 1951.
16. ^ The history of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps,1919-1961 by
    Brigadier J. Clabby J.A. Allen (1963)
17. ^ Doing Their Bit: The British Employment of Military and Civil
    Defence Dogs in the Second World War by Kimberly Brice O'Donnell,
    Helion Limited (2019) IBSN:9781913118334, 1913118339
18. ^ Bonzo's War: Animals Under Fire 1939 -1945. Clare Campbell
    Hachette UK, 2013
19. ^ 3,000,000 Dogs Doomed to Die in Germany'. Thelma Gray, Dog
    World, 21 June 1940, "Many dog lovers must have read with sorrow
    of the order to kill every dog in Germany except the small
    proportion of the canine population used for the army. This
    hideous holocaust must be the greatest slaughter of its kind in
    the history of dogs."

Sources[edit]

  * Campbell, Claire (2013). Bonzo's War: Animals Under Fire
    1939-1945. Glasgow, Scotland: Little, Brown Book Group.
  * Kean, Hilda (2017). The Great Cat and Dog Massacre: The Real
    Story of World War Two's Unknown Tragedy. Chicago, USA:
    University of Chicago Press.

*
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