Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1917 — SUFFERING CATS! [ARTICLE]

SUFFERING CATS!

Enemies of Tom and Maria Accuse Them of Many Serious Crimes.

““Suppress the cat I” was a recent demand made on the legislature of New York state according to a bill for llcehsing felines. Connecticut and other commonwealths also are crusading against outlaw Grimalkin. , Millions of cats are leading lives of vagabondage. They roam the wilds, .seeking what they may devour. Birds are slain by them Tn large numbers. They do harm in other ways. The cat has an ancient history. Tradition has it that the creature appeared in Egypt about 1500 B. C., and being highly regarded there as a fireside Sphinx snuggled down near the seats of the mighty and made himself very much at home. Mummy cats are found in the pyramids. The first cat is believed to have been of African origin. Travelers from Greece seeing the cats so comfortably ensconced in Egypt saw to it that some of them were brought to Athens, apd from the ancientseat of culture the cat is supposed to have spread over Europe. The animal in Europe was adopted by man as a pet about the ninth century. There is something so inherently wild about the cat that even when he reposes on silk cushions and has his fur combed with celluloid and has cream every day he has within him the old spark of ~ savagery. <■•■ The cat is of the race of the saber-toothed tiger and is credited with an Insatiably bloodthirsty disl>ositiqn. He torments his prey. He has no abiding affection for those whose hands have fed him. Chateaubriand said to his friend. M. de Marcellus, -that there is in the eat an ungrateful spirit which prevents him from being attached to anyone. The principal goad of the nationwide crusade against the "villainous, false cat” comes from the

tijeiids of the birds. The cat is a erftfty bird catcher by nature. Cats have been seen lying in wait for the winged victims which are attracted to •he feast so bduntifully spread. They have even been accused of decoying birds within the reach of their paws by imitating the note of the feathered >.-ngsters. 'they climb the trees by night and day in quest of eggs and fledglings. T'hn Burroughs declares that cats kill more birds than do any other animals on this continent. It is also charged that the cat kills squirrels and hares and rabbits, moles and shrews and fish and useful insects, w hile as a ratter he is greatly over-rated. Rat traps, when well handled, are credited with surpassing the cat in efficiency. The other day there was put on exhibition an illustration of the efficiency of the cat. The cabin of a steamship was fumigated with the result of a mortality of one eat and 24 rats, which the cat was supposed to keep away. When the cat is right on the premises the mice play just as much as when he is away, say the enemies of the cat. only they keep out of sight. “Few persons in a normal lifetime,” Insists Dr. A. K. Fisher, who is in charge of economic investigations for the bureau of biological survey of the United States department of agriculture, “run across more than half a dozen cats that habitually attack rats.” j When the cat is permitted to run wild the experts decline to give him the slightest excuse for living. The known facts are that the domestic cat, straying Into the fields and woods, whether a pet, a vagabond or a wild dweller in the open, is a menace to wild li/e and a detriment to the general welfare. As a further argument against the cat the charge is made against him that he disseminates disease by becoming the playmate of sick children and that he carries microbes in his fur, lockjaw in the scratch of his claw, and rabies in the bite of his teeth.—Nejv York Sun. ‘