99 



and dropped off, but it never troubled the cat in the least. This 

 objection to the collar might be met in many cases by tethering 

 wandering or tree-climbing cats when out of doors. 



5. Some people object to a cat license on the ground that the 

 stray animals would not be humanely caught and killed, and that 

 it would be impossible to catch them all. The proponents of 

 the legislation reply that this work might be left to the Animal 

 Rescue League in Greater Boston, as well as in other cities, 

 wherever and whenever the league succeeds in establishing 

 branches, and that as the laws relating to cruelty to animals are 

 strict, there need be no unnecessary cruelty allowed. Also they 

 assert that the great number of cats annually destroyed in Bos- 

 ton and New York by humane associations is sufficient proof 

 that stray cats in the cities can be caught by experienced per- 

 sons. In the country, expert men would have far less trouble to 

 get cats that run wild than in the cities, where shooting and 

 trapping must necessarily be limited. 



The cat license is not a new idea. It was first advanced by 

 humane societies and cat lovers as a means of protection to cats. 

 The licensed dog is regarded as property, and as such has some 

 rights, while the status of the cat is very precarious. It was 

 argued that if cats were licensed they would be entitled to be 

 regarded as the property of their owners, and could not be 

 seized or killed with impunity. 



Gordon Stables, cat lover, writing in 1876, says: "I should 

 like to see a tax imposed upon all cats, and a home for lost cats 

 precisely on the same principles as the home for lost and starving 

 dogs."i 



Miss Helen M. Winslow, cat lover, writing in 1900, advocates 

 a cat license in the following words: "If our municipalities 

 would make a cat license obligatory, just as most of them have 

 ordained a dog law, placing even a small yearly tax on every cat, 

 and providing for the merciful disposition of all vagrant, home- 

 less ones, not only would there be fewer gaunt, half-starved 

 prowlers to steal chickens and pigeons, but the common house 

 cat would rise in value and receive better care.",^ 



Recently such legislation has been proposed in many States, 

 and we find many cat lovers in opposition. The leader in the 

 movement to tax cats was Mr. Albert H. Pratt, president of the 

 Burroughs Nature Club of New York, and there was much 

 agitation on the subject in legislatures and municipal govern- 

 ments, but so far as I know, the only place in America, where 



> stables, Gordon: The Domestic Cat, 1876, p. 157. 



* Winslow, Helen M.: Concerning Cats, My Own and Some Others, 1900, p. 263. 



