400,000 cats and dogs killed in four days in World War Two: Oxford Historian speaks at the University of Greenwich
A forgotten moment in Londoners’ history will be explored in an illustrated lecture about‘The Great British Cat and Dog Massacre of World War Two’ by historian Dr Hilda Kean, Dean of Ruskin College, Oxford at the University of Greenwich on Wednesday, May 5 at 5pm.
In London, at the start of war in September 1939, more than 400,000 cats and dogs died at their owner’s behest in just four days: more than six times the number of civilian deaths throughout the entire country during the whole of the Second World War.
No bombing took place until April 1940. Food for pets was not rationed. The government issued no orders for people to kill their pets. The National Air Raid Precautions Animals Committee (NARPAC), the state body responsible, appealed to owners ‘not to arrange needlessly for the immediate destruction of dogs and cats’.
Dr Kean says: “Today people do not know about this massacre, although the killing was never ‘covered up’: daily newspapers and animal charities reported it. However, in our ‘nation of animal lovers’, many people romanticise the Home Front and do not know about this event. This forgotten moment in Britain’s history makes us re-think the way we ‘remember’ the War and also shows the ways in which animal and human histories are inextricably linked.”
This illustrated talk (no images of dead animals will be shown) will explore why this happened and why it is a forgotten part of Londoners’ history.
Dr Hilda Kean, FRHistS is a tutor in history, director of the innovative MA in Public History, and Dean of Ruskin College, Oxford. She has published widely on public history and the history of London – and animals. Her books include London stories. Personal Lives, Public Histories, Rivers Oram Press, (2004); Animal Rights: Social and Political Change in Britain since 1800, Reaktion Books (2000); People and their Pasts. Public History Today, Palgrave Macmillan 2009, (eds with Paul Ashton). She lives in Hackney.
The talk is the latest in the 'Other Narratives of War’ Public Seminar Series at the University of Greenwich. It will be held on Wednesday, May 5, 5pm at the University of Greenwich, Queen Anne Court 063, Old Royal Naval College, SE10 9LS.
Entry is free; reservations advisable. Contact Dr June Balshaw at: bj61@gre.ac.uk or call 020 8331 7874.
For further information about studying history at the University of Greenwich, call 0800 005 006 or visit www.greenwich.ac.uk
Ends
For further information, please contact:
Caron Jones
Head of Public Relations
University of Greenwich
020 8331 8248
Lee Armitt
Press Officer
University of Greenwich
020 8331 9420