Wartime cat and dog massacre examined

Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wartime cat and dog massacre examined

One of World War II’s lesser-known incidents is examined by an Oxford University academic at a public lecture on Tuesday hosted by the School of Visual and Material Culture at the University's Wellington campus.

The lecture, The Great British Cat and Dog Massacre of WWII, outlines how some 750,000 cats and dogs were killed at their owners’ behest before the first bombs fell on London.

Dr Hilda Kean, of Ruskin College at Oxford, will also seek to answer key questions about the little known animal annihilation. “The massacre is not known anywhere – certainly not in Britain, so the lecture is exploration of this as a new phenomenon/new research.”

Dr Kean is a tutor in history. She runs the pioneering MA in public history and organises public history conferences and the Ruskin public history discussion group. She researches and publishes in public and cultural history and the cultural position of animals.

Her lecture is at 6pm on Tuesday July 21 in the Museum Building theatrette on Buckle St.

ENDS

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