THE EDUCATIONAL HUMANE SOCIETY 



37 



keep, how they must he treated and 

 restrained? Any one who is sufficient- 

 ly responsible to he permitted by so- 

 ciety to keep a cat ought to have public 

 spirit enough to be glad to pay a small 

 license fee for the privilege. This 

 could he attended to by the same offi- 

 cials in charge of dog licenses. A fund 

 would thus he provided for the main- 

 tenance of the work and for the protec- 

 tion and attracting of wild birds, to 

 helo save our foliage, fruit, gardens 

 and cro'js. 



Hitherto this matter has been 

 laughed out of court, but the problem 

 has now ceased to be a joke. The 

 many powerful organizations of sports- 

 men are beginning to realize that 

 quail, grouse and woodcock cannot be 

 exnected to raise many young amid 

 this growing host of maurauding 

 felines. If they and humane people 

 generally will actively take uo this 

 matter, we can soon get wise legisla- 

 tion, canable of enforcement. 



Meanwhile birds are now beginning 

 to nest, and will be under way with 

 family cares nearly all summer, but 

 particularly in June. It is surely a 

 duty to society of everyone owning 

 cats to dispose of all but one, or at 

 most two, and to keep petted pussy 

 under restraint, feeding it properly, 

 keeoing it shut up at night, and not al- 

 lowing it to roam at large. If we keep 

 a cat we should be kind to it, but also 

 be broad enough to be considerate of 

 our neighbors and of the broods of 

 helpless little birds. 



A Comment to Mr. Job's Cat Sugges- 

 tions. 

 Black Short Haired Cattery. 

 Oradell, N. j". 

 May 9, 1912. 

 To the Editor: 



Your letter with enclosure on ''The 

 Problem of the Cat" was duly received, 

 and the article mentioned more than 

 interests me. 



That people should be allowed to 

 keep indiscriminately as pets male and 

 femrdc cats and kittens to which they 

 give the minimum amount of care, and 

 which they abandon without compunc- 

 tion the moment it seems convenient. 



is a crying shame, and undoubtedly 

 measures should be taken, and that 

 promptly, to nut an end to such a state 

 of affairs. As a matter of fact, the only 

 cat suitable for a pet is the UNSEXED 

 MALE, and this fact should be made 

 the basis of operations. Cats should 

 be taxed as dogs are taxed, and more- 

 over the keeping of breeding cats 

 should be controlled by law, so that 

 they may be kept exclusively in the 

 hands of breeders — in other words, of 

 resoonsible parties. 



But here I would like to say a few 

 words in behalf of the CAT. \Ye are 

 taught (and I believe truly), that no 

 race of animals ever suffers extinction, 

 or even irreparable loss through the 

 normal agency of its natural enemies. 

 But no animal is fitted to cope with 

 Man, and he alone is responsible for 

 the most terrible losses in the animal 

 world. One boy with a gun, or in- 

 tent on robbing bird's nests ; one man 

 trying to reconstruct his nervous sys- 

 tem by means of a wholesale slaugh- 

 ter of the innocents ; not to mention 

 one of the scores of milliners who 

 make their living by catering to the 

 vanity of countless "humane" as well 

 as inhumane women, will do, or rather, 

 do, more harm than any one tribe of 

 animals, however numerous, could do 

 to another, or any adverse w r eather 

 conditions could effect. 



I have lived in France for many 

 years, both in city and country, and 

 have raised and owned cats there with- 

 out any government restrictions; I also 

 know many English breeders who let 

 their cats roam at large without hind- 

 rance from the government, yet, as 

 Mr. Job suggests the song birds are 

 far more plentiful there than here — 

 which would seem to prove that after 

 all the cats are not the main source 

 of the trouble. 



Allowing, however, that there may 

 be too many cats here, the cause of the 

 trouble is the lack of care of the breed- 

 ing cats, and the inhuman manner in 

 which cats and kittens are turned adrift 

 when it is no longer convenient or 

 agreeable for their owners to provide 

 for them. They multiply rapidly in 

 the open, and they must live — in the 

 country on the birds and other wild 



