SLAUGHTER OF DOGS AND CATS.
The onslaught made on dogs found in the streets of Worcester, when the cholera was expected three or four years ago, suggests an extract from history bearing on the point. In the Droitwich records, the bailiff's accounts for the year 1637, a time of great pestilence, contain the following among other entries:
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| "To Wm. Watkins for burienge of doggs and katts in the sicknesse time | 5 | 0 |
| To Wm. Harris for mendinge his gunn to kill doggs Aug. 26. | 0 | 18 |
| To Ed. Turke for killing two katts | 0 | 4" |
In the parochial records of the city of Westminster for the year 1603 mention is made of one person having "massacred the amazing number of 500 dogs;" and in 1605, 83 others. Thus it seemed the practice of making a hecatomb of dogs and cats on these sad occasions. Can any one explain the reason of this? Was it that these animals were deemed to be peculiarly obnoxious to the pestilence, and that it was contagious? Similar practices prevailed in ancient times: we read in the "Iliad"—
"On mules and dogs the infection first began;
At last the vengeful arrows fix'd on man—
For nine long days throughout the dusky air,
The pyres, thick flaming, shot a dismal glare."