British pet massacre/holocaust (trigger warning)

(In a mystery series that I have just started reading, the Women of World War II, I came across a mention of this horrible event)

British pet massacre
The British pet massacre was an event in the United Kingdom in 1939 in which over 750,000 pets were killed in preparation for food shortages during World War II.[1][better source needed]
Background
Advice to animal owners

In 1939, the British government formed the National Air Raid Precautions Animals Committee (NARPAC) to decide what to do with pets before the war broke out. The committee was worried that when the government would need to ration food, owners would decide to split their rations with their pets or leave the animals to starve. In response to that fear, NARPAC published a pamphlet titled "Advice to Animal Owners." The pamphlet suggested moving pets from the big cities and into the countryside. It concluded with the statement that "If you cannot place them in the care of neighbours, it really is kindest to have them destroyed."[2] The pamphlet also contained an advertisement for a captive bolt pistol that could be used to humanely kill the animals.
Incident

When war was declared in 1939, many pet owners flocked to pet surgery clinics and animal homes to kill their pets.[3] Many veterinarian groups such as the PDSA and the RSPCA were against these drastic measures, but their hospitals were still flooded with pet owners in the first few days. PDSA founder Maria Dickin reported: "Our technical officers called upon to perform this unhappy duty will never forget the tragedy of those days."[4]

When London was bombed in September 1940, even more pet owners rushed to kill their pets. "People were worried about the threat of bombing and food shortages and felt it inappropriate to have the 'luxury' of a pet during wartime".[4]
Opposition

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, against the trend, managed to feed and care for 145,000 dogs during the course of the war and provided a field in Ilford as a pet cemetery, "where about 500,000 animals were buried, many from the first week of the war".[5] A famous opponent of pet culling was Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton, a cat lover, who campaigned against the killing and created her own sanctuary in a heated hangar at Ferne.[4][6]
Aftermath

Estimates say that over 750,000 pets were killed over the course of the event. Many pet owners, after getting over the fear of bombings and lack of food, regretted killing their pets and blamed the government for starting the hysteria.[1][better source needed]

In 2017, author Hilda Kean published a book, The Great Cat and Dog Massacre, telling the story from a historical perspective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_pet_massacre



England’s Forgotten Pet Massacre of 1939
Why were hundreds of thousands of pets put to death in London?
by Abbey Perreault August 28, 2018




In the first week of September of 1939, London’s animal shelters were overflowing with patients. Lines of pet-owners, all waiting to euthanize their cats, dogs, birds, and rabbits, stretched out the door, in some cases wrapping around the block for nearly a mile. But none of the animals were dying. In fact, none of them were even sick. The distraught Londoners had brought them to do what they thought was the humane thing: Spare their pets from the atrocities—and food shortages—of the impending world war. The British Pet Massacre of 1939 is a horrific, if not seemingly impossible, twist in the narrative often told about the “People’s War.” In fact, animal cruelty was often used to embody the cruelest reaches of fascism. One piece in the Daily Mirror ridiculed a German ambassador for abandoning his dog when fleeing the embassy, stating “[t]hat’s what Britain is fighting—the inherent brutality of Nazi-ism, that has no justice or human feeling—even for its pets.”


Instead, England championed its brave-hearted canine war heroes. At the Ilford Pet Cemetery, you’ll find headstones commemorating World War II animals such as Simon, the beloved cat who received the Blue Cross and the PDSA Dickin Medal for his Naval service. But, according to author and historian Hilda Kean, buried alongside these celebrated critters are thousands of pets who were killed before a single bomb had been dropped. “The PDSA grounds might well be defined as a site of memory,” Kean writes, “only certain, individual, animals, whose exploits are narrativised to fit within the notion of a ‘good’ war are actually remembered.” And until recently, that darker history has remained, largely, underground.
. . . .
The National Air Raid Precautions Animals Committee (NARPAC) had estimated that England was then home to six to seven million dogs and cats, 56 million poultry, and more than 37 million farm animals—about twice as many domestic animals as there were people in the country. War not only meant the potential for air raids on the homeland, but also for rationing and major food shortages. In anticipation of wartime conditions and sparse resources, NARPAC issued an advisory pamphlet to animal owners encouraging them to send their animals to the countryside. But if the animals couldn’t be placed into someone else’s care? The pamphlet suggested it would be “kindest to have them destroyed.”

So when, on September 3, 1939, Neville Chamberlain publicly announced that Britain would be going to war, thousands of Londoners marched dutifully to their local clinic to do what they thought was right. Veterinarians worked overtime to meet the demand. The National Canine Defense League allegedly ran out of chloroform. A 1939 report of the mass euthanasia in Animal World later recounted that “the work of destroying animals was continued, day and night.

. . . . . .

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/british-pet-massacre




The Forgotten History of the British Pet Holocaust
The history of 750,000 British pet dogs and cats euthanized in WWII.

Posted September 28, 2022 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

Key points

Just before WWII there were fears that war with Germany would result in food shortages.
A British governmental committee recommended that pet dogs and cats be put to death to conserve food resources.
Within the first four days of WWII, 400,000 pet dogs and cats were slaughtered.
Later the government used relationships with pets as examples of British resilience, and erased the pet holocaust from memory.


The love that the British people have for their pets, especially dogs and cats, is so well-accepted that it is virtually recognized as part of the national character. Given that fact, how did the British needlessly slaughter 750,000 dogs and cats during World War II? Furthermore, how can it be that this event is so little-known and seldom discussed?

A True Holocaust

The full picture of what happened can be credited to Hilda Kean, a British historian who was the former Dean and Director of Public History at Ruskin College, Oxford. Before we look at how it came about, it is important to understand the magnitude of what happened. In early September 1939, during the first four days of World War II, over 400,000 dogs and cats were killed. This number constituted some 26 percent of London's pets at the time. It is a number six times greater than the number of civilian deaths in the UK from bombing during the entire war. Furthermore by the time the campaign was finished this number would nearly double.


The Source of the Problem

We can trace this tragedy back to the summer of 1939. Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. However, the inevitability of the conflict was clear at the beginning of the year. For this reason, a number of defense committees were formed to prepare the nation should the British homeland become a target. One such was the National Air Raid Precautions Animals Committee (NARPAC). NARPAC estimated that the pet population in England was around 6 to 7 million dogs and cats. The committee noted that the advent of war would mean, not only the potential for air raids but also the likelihood of food rationing and major food shortages. NARPAC worried that people would be tempted to share scarce food resources with their pets and thus declared that "to have a pet while the nation goes to war is an unaffordable luxury."

NARPAC published its recommendations in the pamphlet "Advice to Animal Owners." The pamphlet advised:

"If at all possible, send or take your household animals into the country in advance of an emergency." It concluded: "If you cannot place them in the care of neighbours, it really is kindest to have them destroyed."

As if to punctuate the seriousness of this suggestion, the inner cover of the pamphlet contained a full-page advertisement for the Cash Captive Bolt Pistol which was presented as "the standard instrument for the humane destruction of domestic animals."

The committee's advice was printed in almost every newspaper and announced on the BBC. During interviews with NARPAC committee members, some noted that they could even provide a rental service for such slaughter guns.

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. . . . .

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/202209/the-forgotten-history-the-british-pet-holocaust