“It is not well known because it is not a pretty story. It does not fit the idea we have of being a nation loving animals.” Who is speaking is Hilda Keana British historian who dedicated a few years ago A book To which, as she recognizes, perhaps it is the most truculent, sad, delirious and of course traumatic episode that Great Britain lived at the dawn of World War II, long before the Blitz. Which? “The great massacre of dogs and cats.”
Thus, with capital letters, as Kean herself titled her book.
What does the newspaper say? August 1939 It was not a good month to read British newspapers (neither the French, Poles, American nor in general those of the majority of the nations of the West). Not at least if what you were looking for were serene and reassuring news. There were only a few days for the outbreak of World War II and the newspapers arrived loaded with fu -managed predictions.
They bought it very much to their English who looked at the newspapers last week of August, days before Nazis soldiers advanced on Poland and that precipitated the entrance of France and Great Britain in the conflict, on September 3. There, in their pages, the readers met A brochure that froze the blood to more than one reader. For its content. And its implications.
“The most compassionate”. The document was simple. And above all direct. It was distributed August 28with the approval of the Ministry of Internal Security and after the National Air Raid Precats Animals Committee (Narpac) Write a notice with “advice for animal owners.” Its content It was basically the following: “If possible, send or carry their domestic animals to the field before an emergency occurs. If they cannot leave them in the care of neighbors, the most compassionate is to sacrifice them.” The message was disseminated through almost all the newspapers of Great Britain and even radiated in the BBC chain.
Not just that. The brochure included the announcement of an instrument for the “humanitarian destruction” of pets, a captive bolt gun similar to those used to sacrifice cattle on farms. As Clare Campbell points outAuthor of ‘Animals Under Fire 1939-1945’, another book dedicated to that episode of World War II, the announcement fell like a jug of cold water in a society in which war drums were heard strongly.
It was, in His own words“a national tragedy in certain.”
A figure: 400,000. The announcement had effect. Especially if one takes into account that that same week, on September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The day after the announcement you could see people from London leading to sacrifice their pets and Kean estimates That after the beginning of the conflict, only during the first week, the life of 400,000 animals. And so emphasize“only in London.” The calculations on the number of dogs, cats and other executed animals vary, but something have in common: they are chilling.
“Basically, the people were told to kill their pets and did it. They killed 750,000 in a week. It was a true tragedy, a complete disaster,” It laments Campbell in the BBC. Other sources They point out that this data (just over 750,000 animals) was the total company animals executed.
According to Narpac calculationsthroughout England there were between six and seven million dogs and cats, 56 million poultry and more than 37 million farm animals, which raised a question: in case of war on British soil, bombardment and rationing, how devils feed all animals?
Several hours tails. The figures are stupid. The testimonies, too. Although Germany does not London bombarded Until a year later, at the beginning of September 1940, in many British homes a psychosis unleashed that led them to pile in front of the clinics and organisms that were dedicated to sacrificing animals. There is talk of tails of several hours and owners of dogs, cats and birds that were waiting patiently in rows that turned around to the apple and extended throughout hundreds of meters. Everything to say goodbye to ‘Toby’ or ‘Félix’.
“Our technicians, called to perform that unfortunate task, will never forget the tragedy of those days,” I recognized To the BBC chain Maria Dickinfounder of the popular dispensary for sick animals, or PDSA)
As the crematoriums did not work At night (not to give clues to German bombers in case Luftwaffe He decided to launch over the sky of London) the work was piled up. There is who holds that the National League of Canine Defense exhausted all its chloroform reserves and that It was chosen for burying animals on the grounds that the PDSA had in Ilford, where the popular is Pet cemetery Founded in London in the 20s.
Why did they do it? The big question. British authorities They did not order expressly the sacrifice of pets and even Slide that Narpac instructed cattle, without going into details about how to act with domestic animals. Even, remember Obscure atlaswith the passing of the weeks (too late), a warning ended up clarifying that those who stayed in their homes “should not sacrifice their animals.” So … why so many people did tail so that they ended the lives of their dogs and cats?
The most likely answer is: fear. Wars not only carry the risk of air attacks, but also narrows, hardships and especially food rationing. And that is something that the population that had just face the great war I was very present. Campbell remember Even how one of his relatives who lived the dawn the second conflagration made a radical decision in 1939.
“Shortly after Poland’s invasion, it was announced by radio that could be a food shortage. My uncle announced that Paddy, the family’s pet, would have to be sacrificed the next day,” recalls the British historian.
Pets and War, a luxury? Among those who sacrificed their furry companions who were not supporting the idea that German bombings were hungry or supported. There were those who feared the rationing of food, who had to leave their home to enroll in the army or simply who believed that war and the care of a pet were incompatible realities.
“People were concerned about the threat of bombings and food shortages and considered inappropriate to have the ‘luxury’ of a pet in times of war,” Remember Pip Doddof the National Army Museum, in the BCC.
In An article On the 1939 disaster published in Naukas, Juan Pascual points out that when the war was intensified and began The blitz The passage of animals to the anti -aircraft shelters and the pet owners also had (more) complicated to find food were veiled. To all that is added that the conception and vision that we have today is not exactly the same as 90 years ago.
Were all agree? No. Animal defense organizations, such as PDSA or RSPCA, in addition to veterinarians, “opposed pet slaughter,” Remember Kean. In addition to the massive sacrifices they worried that people abandon their animals on the street, their fate. Other voices advocated less drastic measures or not resorting to sacrifice until it was “absolutely necessary.” One of the most energetic voices was that of the Duchess of Hamilton, who tried to create a network of homes in the field willing to welcome dogs and cats.
The aristocrat came to issue a message on the BBC to request volunteers and even, Remember the chainHe sent his employees to rescue pets from the East End from London. Over time he founded a sanctuary on an airfield.
The animals in their care were not the only ones who found a second chance during the war, especially as of September 1940, after the beginning of the bombings. Battersa Dogs and Cat Household fed 145,000 dogs During the war and there were those who also managed to, despite all complications, scarcity and norms that complicated animals access to shelters or rationing, keep their animals alive.
Images | Photosnormandie (Flickr), __ Drz __ (UNSPLASH), Wikipedia, National Archives (via pingnews in Flickr)
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