Pet protectors
I’m pleased that Helen Cowie covered the work of the RSPCA across 200 years (April). She explained that “pets had initially been excluded from the RSPCA’s operations’’. But MP Joseph Pease secured the protection of dogs and “other domestic animals” in 1835, and by 1849 the Cruelty to Animals Prevention Act included cats as well as dogs.
While the state provided these basic legal protections to domestic animals, we know from contemporary sources that it wasn’t only constables who acted to uphold the new laws. Cases of domestic animal cruelty found their way into the courts at the urging of local people, with convictions subsequently secured on their evidence.
One cat skinner, for instance, was found guilty on the testimony of the main witness, a woman who saw the disposal of the unfortunate cat on a dung heap. Another case saw two habitual cat skinners sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Australia after they were found guilty of theft. Again, this was thanks to the intervention of a passersby, who harangued the women when they were observed stealing cats from the street and gave evidence in court.
Records show many such examples of Londoners, often from its poorest areas, actively protecting cats. While it’s good to acknowledge the RSPCA’s past history, it’s also useful to recognise the achievements of ordinary people.
Dr Hilda Kean, Hastings
Normandy heroes
The otherwise excellent article on D-Day (Normandy’s Forgotten Heroes, June), seems to me to feature one error and one omission.
The error is to refer to the landings as an ‘invasion’. Both Winston Churchill – and, to this day, the French – refer to the debarquement as a liberation. This is more than a semantic quibble: it underlines the fact that Allied troops were not an invading force but, instead, a massive armed intervention to free France and, subsequently, the rest of western Europe from Nazi tyranny.
What’s missing is any mention of the participation of French troops, who were involved in both the planning and execution of the landings. I had the honour on a few occasions to meet Commandant Philippe Kieffer, who on D-Day had landed along with 177 French commandos on Sword Beach.
Simon Piney, Eastcombe
Brushes with greatness
Your feature about airborne forces in the Second World War (The Spearhead of the Invasion, June) brought back m
