HOW THE BRITISH WERE EASILY CONVINCED BY GOVERNMENT TO SLAUGHTER 750,000 PETS DURING WORLD WAR II

Based on the belief that it was the patriotic thing to do, British people slaughtered their own pets during World War II. 

 

 

A few days ago I posted the video of a fake petition on a university campus in Austin, Texas, where an activist was gathering signatures to have a law mandating pedestrians wear helmets for their own protection.  

It was surprising to see how easily they were persuaded to sign based on very unconvincing arguments.

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/10/should-pedestrian-wear-helmets-small.html

 

This next story shows that people can be convinced to do the unthinkable, if moved to do so based on what they or their government considers to be the right thing. 

 

The psychological process is no different than in other instances when religious or nationalistic doctrine is invoked.

 

750,000 pets were murdered by their own owners when asked by their government to do so.

As the air-raid sirens sounded for the first time and families hastily covered up their windows with black-out curtains, countless cats and dogs were shooed out into the street, or tied up in sacks to be thrown in canals or dumped in back streets and alleyways.

 

You might wonder how the British, a nation of animal lovers, suddenly took it into their heads to kill so many animals.

 

In fact, it was all based on a false assumption that putting down the family pet was a patriotic and humane thing to do. the Government was instrumental in this massacre of beloved pets.

 

Not only did the Government set MI5 agents to watch animal rights activists, it also considered the mass euthanasia of all ‘non-essential animals’, sponsored a clandestine anti-dog hate campaign and sanctioned the criminal prosecutions of cat owners for giving their pets saucers of milk.

 

On the eve of war, a Home Office pamphlet was published which indicated that pets would not be allowed in public air-raid shelters, and featured a do-it-yourself guide to putting animals down.

 

On page two was an advert for a captive bolt pistol.

 

The result was panic.

 

A council vet in East London recorded the events of that first day: ‘The sirens sounded  . . .and almost immediately West Ham Town Hall became besieged by panic-stricken people bringing their animals for destruction,’ he wrote.

 

‘In spite of trying to reason with the hysterical mob, we were soon inundated with dogs and cats whose owners had abandoned them in offices and corridors.’

 

That night, distressed animals cast out by their owners roamed the blacked-out streets.

 

Five days of mass destruction followed. A local rendering firm was stacked several feet deep with dog and cat carcasses.

 

Not even London Zoo escaped the carnage, also ‘destroyed owing to war conditions’.

 

When major Nazi bombing began in the autumn of 1940, once again there was a rush to abandon pets by the thousand.

 

The West Ham vet recalled blitzed streets ‘inundated with cats’.

 

Municipal parties set out on slaughtering campaigns using a mixture of electric shocks, cyanide and chloroform - 100 animals at a time was not unusual.

 

There were so many animals that mass culling was the only option.As the war continued, the question of what to feed pets became more critical.

 

In August 1940, the Waste Of Food Order was passed, making it an offence, punishable by two years’ imprisonment, to feed animals with food fit for human consumption.

 

Dogs were considered the real enemy within. One official at the Ministry Of Food recorded in the minutes of a meeting: ‘The only solution is that a reduction of the dog population should be secured.’

 

Anti-dog sentiment was to be encouraged: ‘Tell the public they eat 280,000 tons of meat per year!’

 

Cats were also a target for the Ministry, and an anti-cat briefing was leaked to journalists: ‘Too many of this country’s 7 million cats are overfed, given portions of meat and fish which, to a man, would be the equivalent of a 3lb joint every lunchtime.’

 

Read more - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2460094/Panic-drove-Britain-slaughter-750-000-family-pets-week.html

 

 

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