[HN Gopher] The Cat's Meat Man: Feeding Felines in Victorian London
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       The Cat's Meat Man: Feeding Felines in Victorian London
        
       Author : ohjeez
       Score  : 61 points
       Date   : 2025-07-04 23:28 UTC (2 days ago)
        
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 (TXT) w3m dump (publicdomainreview.org)
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | I thoroughly recommend the Dover books reprint of Henry Mayhew.
       | "London Labour and the London poor" it is absolutely fascinating.
       | People who had a brass farthing to rub together could enjoy
       | eating 2 day old leftovers from the posh banquets, sold on the
       | streets. (2 days because much of it was premade and so a day or
       | so old by the time it hit the banquet table) Trifle and Lobster
       | for anyone. Clothes rental was a thing. Dirt collecting had
       | specialities with "pure" dog dung fetching extra prices for
       | leather tanning.
       | 
       | I think Mayhew may have fed into Sydney and Beatrice Webb which
       | in turn much later leads to Labour party policy, and ultimately
       | the Beveridge report and birth of the welfare state.
       | 
       | Also, if you enjoyed Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting you will be
       | familiar with Matthew the cats meat man.
        
       | JamesAdir wrote:
       | Thank you for sharing this wonderful gem. It was a splendid read!
        
       | ashoeafoot wrote:
       | Terry pratchett would be loving this
        
       | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
       | IIRC, Neutering pets wasn't common until the mid 1900s.
       | 
       | So unwanted and stray animals could be a problem in this era.
       | Unlimited feeding would mean a population explosion.
        
         | kjkjadksj wrote:
         | In this era you'd rather have too many cats than too many rats.
        
       | enraged_camel wrote:
       | For the cat lovers among you, I strongly recommend the
       | documentary _Kedi_ , which is about the stray cats of Istanbul
       | and the bonds they form with their human neighbors. Trailer:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmV-mXkfjK8
        
       | dctoedt wrote:
       | I love the ambiguity of "The Cat's Meat Man" -- my initial
       | thought before reading the rest of the title was, "and to whom
       | does he _sell_ cat meat? "
        
         | pimlottc wrote:
         | There's a similar confusion in Australia, where ground beef is
         | called mince. You can go into any supermarket and pick up some
         | beef mince, pork mince, even kangaroo mince. And then to the
         | pet food aisle where you'll find... "puppy mince"?!?!
         | 
         | https://happypawspetfood.com.au/products/puppy-mince-1kg-por...
        
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       (page generated 2025-07-07 23:01 UTC)