Concerning Cats 



Something should be done for these poor creatures, 

 and we need not look for the millennium until it is 

 made impossible for them to suffer as they do. A 

 friend of humanity has suggested that police stations 

 might be made a harbor for cats which have no 

 homes, and methods provided at each station for 

 relieving their troubles by a merciful death. And 

 again, that a law be passed by which every person 

 who is known to drop or otherwise desert a cat could 

 be fined not less than ten dollars, the money to go 

 toward maintaining some kind of a refuge for deserted 

 or homeless animals. 



It does not seem possible that any one can be 

 guilty of such deliberate cruelty — to take into one's 

 house and pet and care for an animal, and then aban- 

 don it to starvation and misery. Cats certainly be- 

 come attached to people, and when deserted in this 

 way they suffer not only from want of food, but from 

 want of the companionship and affection to which 

 they have been accustomed ; and we should always 

 bear in mind the fact that whether handsome or ugly, 

 sensible or stupid, all animals have feelings, and on 

 that account ought to be treated with kindness and 

 consideration. 



Then again, what right have we to expect a cat, 

 unless we have taught her, to exercise a moral judg- 

 ment in regard to what she chooses to eat when left 

 to herself.' A cat may be trained to discriminate 

 between canaries and English sparrows, between 



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