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Wartime care of animals

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
This set me wondering about how some animals were cared for during wartime. In this case bees were taken care of by the Bee Keepers Association and a new apiary was set up in Kings Heath Park.

Were animals evacuated, such as those in dog homes etc ? Viv.
Source: British Newspaper Archive
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That’s sad Mort. But expect it was better than them having to suffer the terror of raids at night etc.

For those that wanted to keep their pet healthy and safe through the War, Bob Martin’s were ready with advice. Wonder if many had blast-proof kennels ! I doubt it. Viv.

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That’s sad Mort. But expect it was better than them having to suffer the terror of raids at night etc.

For those that wanted to keep their pet healthy and safe through the War, Bob Martin’s were ready with advice. Wonder if many had blast-proof kennels ! I doubt it. Viv.

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I did look into this about 12 years ago and understand there were well over 700k pets destroyed yet it tuned out that feeding and looking after them would not have been a problem. It seemed to me a bit like collecting aluminium saucepans and cutting down park and school railings; not really essential but it did give the population a sense of doing their bit.
 
Must have been very upsetting for some families. Also (pet) dogs tended to be allowed out unsupervised to roam the streets at that time so I suppose they might have been an added nuisance.

To many, especially those alone, it must have been a comfort to have a dog in wartime - although the psychological benefits probably wouldn’t have been recognised at the time. And dogs in my grandparents family always lived off scarps, so no specific feeding issues there and hence why they could always be found under the dining table when food was about ( that is the dogs, not my grandparents!!). Think I would have been one of those who’d have put up a fight to keep my dog.

Viv.
 
I thoroughly agree with you Viv, but wonder, from my very limited memories really at the end of the war whether there would have been any scraps left over in many cases. You were encouraged very strongly to clear your plate . This is probably why I now am a "little" above my ideal weight, having carried on that tradition
 
Re. #6 you wouldn’t want some of those freely roaming the streets if a bomb any zoo enclosures ! Viv.
 
that is very sad
:mad:
It is very sad and I cannot imagine how people felt having to make that decision at that time. I had to have my 21 year old cat euthanised last year and it was a decision that really hurts after having her for so long, but could not let her suffer her old age any longer as her body was slowly shutting down. Still missing her, even though I have a 9 month year old kitten keeping me on my toes.
 
With the example still fairly fresh in the mind of the Spanish towns devastated by bombing in the Civil War, the expectation here was for an immediate, overwhelming attack from the air the moment that war broke out. (As we now know, that didn't happen and serious attacks were many months away). I suppose that in the circumstances many people, especially in inner city areas, thought that the kindest thing to do, in expectation of that and other horrors, was to put their pet to sleep. And I imagine that that decision was delayed and eventually not made in many thousands of cases. What would any of us done? I like to think that, at the very least, I would "have waited and seen". But who knows?

How did the pets cope when the bombs eventually fell? I wonder at that when I see pet-owning friends trying to protect their animals nowadays from the noise of fireworks on Bonfire Night and New Year's Eve (and their anger when they see similar celebrations stretching to any night of the year when someone wants to celebrate their birthday!) I can imagine the thumps and flashes from 1940-1942 - and saw and heard some of them from a distance - but the noise and mayhem must have had a background of barking dogs. Is that ever mentioned in reports?

I don't know if there was any consideration in our household of putting our beloved mongrel to sleep in September 1939. I very much doubt it although I would have been too young to have been involved in that sort of conversation. So "Rex" (as I shall call him in this delicate age) put up with everything: he quietly accepted his place in the ranking order when he was sent to his kennel in the garage while the rest of us trooped off to the shelter and its relative safety. And was happy to see us again in the morning, as we were him.

"Rex" - bought for 5 shillings in the early 1930s from the travelling greengrocer with his horse and cart - basking in the sun of a pre-war summer by the catmint..... And engaged in the creation of a new garden.... He survived not only the cull but also the war; and had a happy old age, once again in peacetime and still being fed on scraps as he had been all his life.

Chris

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With the example still fairly fresh in the mind of the Spanish towns devastated by bombing in the Civil War, the expectation here was for an immediate, overwhelming attack from the air the moment that war broke out. (As we now know, that didn't happen and serious attacks were many months away). I suppose that in the circumstances many people, especially in inner city areas, thought that the kindest thing to do, in expectation of that and other horrors, was to put their pet to sleep. And I imagine that that decision was delayed and eventually not made in many thousands of cases. What would any of us done? I like to think that, at the very least, I would "have waited and seen". But who knows?

How did the pets cope when the bombs eventually fell? I wonder at that when I see pet-owning friends trying to protect their animals nowadays from the noise of fireworks on Bonfire Night and New Year's Eve (and their anger when they see similar celebrations stretching to any night of the year when someone wants to celebrate their birthday!) I can imagine the thumps and flashes from 1940-1942 - and saw and heard some of them from a distance - but the noise and mayhem must have had a background of barking dogs. Is that ever mentioned in reports?

I don't know if there was any consideration in our household of putting our beloved mongrel to sleep in September 1939. I very much doubt it although I would have been too young to have been involved in that sort of conversation. So "Rex" (as I shall call him in this delicate age) put up with everything: he quietly accepted his place in the ranking order when he was sent to his kennel in the garage while the rest of us trooped off to the shelter and its relative safety. And was happy to see us again in the morning, as we were him.

"Rex" - bought for 5 shillings in the early 1930s from the travelling greengrocer with his horse and cart - basking in the sun of a pre-war summer by the catmint..... And engaged in the creation of a new garden.... He survived the war and had a happy old age, once again in peacetime and still being fed on scraps as he had been all his life.

Chris

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Chris your dog was lovely! So Glad he had a long happy life.
 
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