Rural School Leaflet 



855 



ANIMAL STUDY 

 The Editor 



CATS 



Not often so friendly 



Although the special study of animals for this year includes the cat, 

 we shall not give any lesson on this subject. Most of the necessary inform- 

 ation relating to cats is known to teachers and pupils. It would seem that 

 tim.e might be much better spent in giving instruction that relates to other 

 forms of animal life. 



It is very essential, however, that the point of view of some of our best 

 students of natural history should be considered in regard to the large 

 number of cats that are allowed freedom throughout the country. At 

 night they wander in all kinds of places and then go back into the homes 

 in which they are the companions of children. Many persons who make 

 pets of cats feel that there are too many and that the freedom allowed 

 them is serious to the public. 



We have asked permission of Professor C. H. Hodge to publish his 

 opinion on this question and we hope that teachers and parents will give 

 it some consideration. However much any individual may care for a 

 cat, he will doubtless be open-minded enough to help in working out a 

 problem that is of deep interest at the present time. It will be well for 

 teachers to read over the following extract to the older boys and girls 

 and to discuss the subject with them. This will give opportunity to con- 

 sider the question of htmiane treatment of animal life whenever it is 

 necessary to take measures to prevent animals from becoming a public 

 nuisance. Professor Hodge presents his opinion as follows: " Unlike 

 dogs, cats readily return to a wild, or semi-wild life, and thus become a 

 menace to much of the valuable and interesting nature life of the country, 

 game birds and animals, and even to poultry. They breed in great num- 

 bers in cities, where their lives are, for the most part, a prolonged misery 

 both to themselves and the community. Their cries at night are the most 

 disagreeable sounds we have in nature. The various smells that mark 

 the places they infest are utterly nauseating and intolerable. 



