The Unfortunate British Pet Purge...!

Wartime makes some folks, especially in government, come up with some pretty scary ideas. We had our share during the WW1 and WW2 years, but one idea pushed by the British was perhaps the cruelest of them all.

Hopefully the folks that came up with it meant well, but it is still a scary thought.

The British pet purge

animals purgeCredit: Fred Morley/Fox Photos/Getty Images

In 1939, the British government circulated a pamphlet about how to care for household pets during wartime. Along with offering advice on first aid and instructing people to evacuate their animals from cities, the memo also suggested that owners consider having their pets “painlessly destroyed.” Fearing possible food shortages and roving packs of starved dogs, thousands complied. In the span of only one week, as many as 750,000 pets were euthanized by their owners or by animal shelters. The London Zoo, meanwhile, had all of its poisonous animals killed to prevent them from escaping in the event of a bomb attack. The pet cull continued after the beginning of the Blitz, but humane societies later stepped in to assist with care and evacuation. One London shelter, the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, took in as many as 145,000 animals over the course of the war.

While I can understand a few of the reasons behind this thinking, I'm afraid I would not support the wholesale euthanization of animals, especially out of fear.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!