Sir,-Professor Robert Wallace╒s plea for the breeding and wide distribution of a species of super-cat to cope with the rat menace may have its justification in certain spheres; but surely primary attention should be given to the removal of the food supplies on which the rats batten. It is no misstatement to say that on the outskirts on the outskirts of the majority of our cities, towns and villages will be found tipping-grounds on which lie vast accumulations of house and shop refuse, and it is in such areas that rats feed and multiply. Of one such tip it is recorded that close approach is shirked, and shooting parties do not retrieve the carcasses, but leave them as carrion for the survivors. In another instance the medical officer of health, in his annual report, points out that, in the absence of plant for the destruction of the refuse, one has to close one╒s eyes to the hideous and noisome tips, to the vermin and flies which breed there, and to the butchers╒ offal which, buried a foot or two down, is disinterred by dogs.
The breeding of a tribe of super-cats is a intriguing proposition, but at the highest I cannot see that one such cat would be more efficient than a dog ratter. A dog shares the joy of the chase with its master, and will submit to direction. A cat after prey knows nothing of human ties or direction, and, if we are to have a breed capable of taking in hand the rat tribe in their chief open-air breeding-grounds we shall end with an outcry for the extermination of the cats.
