The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
RSS feeds: v0.91; v1.0 (RDF); v2.0; Atom.
8:10am on Wednesday, 16th February, 2022:
Anecdote
Some 75 years ago, at the age of 6, my mother was taught by her aunt Alice how to drown kittens. The technique involved taking a long woollen stocking, inserting the kitten into it, tying a knot at the open end, then putting the result in a bucket of water. The wool got wet, sinking the kitten to the bottom of the bucket; the knot prevented it from getting out.
This sounds rather cruel to us. If you tried it at home, the RSPCA would be onto you in a trice. However, back in 1947 it was regarded as humane. You couldn't stop a cat from having a litter of kittens unless you killed the cat too, so if you were presented with a batch and had no money to feed it, giving the kittens a death that involved less suffering than starvation would was considered a mercy.
My mother's aunt was born in 1894, so 128 years ago. She was deeply religious and would certainly have regarded teaching her niece how to wreak painless-but-very-uncomfortable death upon kittens as a responsible act.
I'm now left wondering how they used to kill kittens 256 years ago, and whether the people who lived 128 years ago would have regarded that as being inhumane from their perspective.
Also, I've not looked up what the RSPCA advises people with unwanted kittens to do, but whatever it is, I'm sure that 128 years from now it's going to look cruel to our future selves.
Latest entries.
Archived entries.
About this blog.
Copyright © 2022 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).