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far offered is inconclusive. Cats undoubtedly disseminate ring- 

 worm, and rabies in the cat is more dangerous to man than in 

 the dog, but rarer. In some cases serious infections appear to 

 have been transmitted by the bites or scratches of cats, but here 

 again the evidence of direct infection is not conclusive, as any 

 wound may become infected after infliction. 



The evils connected with the unrestrained liberty of the cat 

 can be abated only by reducing the number of cats to a minimum, 

 limiting breeding, destroying superfluous kittens at birth, re- 

 straining or confining cats kept as pets and as ratters (particu- 

 larly at night and during the breeding season of the birds), 

 quarantining cats in cases of infectious diseases, and destroying 

 all stray and feral cats, wherever they may be found. 



When it becomes necessary to allow barn cats free range, that 

 they may destroy rats outside of buildings during the summer 

 months, they should be supplied with water and well and regu- 

 larly fed with meat and other animal foods. Probably in most 

 cases they will then be less likely to roam the fields and more in- 

 clined to lie in wait for rats and mice than if not well fed. 



In dealing with the cat from an economic point of view we 

 need raise no question of the rights of the animal. Man has won 

 his way upward through the great struggle by his own powers of 

 mind out of prehistoric darkness to the place of command. He 

 now controls the destinies of his fellow creatures. He may con- 

 cede them certain rights only if such concession does not inter- 

 fere with the best interests of all. 



Animals were domesticated because of their utility to man in 

 his struggle upward from savagery. The sympathy which he 

 feels for his helpers and pets, praiseworthy and important as it is, 

 is a secondary consideration. The claims of the cat to a place in 

 our domestic life rest primarily on the fact that it is supposed to 

 do for us, with little conscious effort on our part, the onerous, 

 petty and disagreeable task of destroying small rodents which for 

 centuries have elected to fasten themselves as parasites on civili- 

 zation. Insomuch as the creature fails in this, in so far as it 

 destroys other more useful or nobler forms of life, in such meas- 

 ure it becomes an evil and a pest. It will become an influence for 

 good or ill according as we mould it, restrain it and limit its 

 activities. It is our duty to check, with a firm hand, its undue 

 increase in domestication, and to eliminate the vagrant or feral 

 cat as we would a wolf. 



