The Great Cat & Dog Massacre The Real Story of World War Two's Unknown Tragedy

"The tremendous loss of human life during World War II has made this episode an unsuitable one to criticize. Kean's book brings to light an uncomfortable chapter in British history."
– Wall Street Journal

"This is a brilliant telling of an important but neglected story of Britain's 'People's War.' Kean's reconstruction of the unnecessary slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pet animals at the outbreak of war will live long in the reader's memory. But it is matched by her meticulous recovery of the changing aspect of animal-human relations throughout the remaining six years of conflict."
– Jerry White, author of London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People

"This is a profoundly important book. Like a piece of paper folded into origami, it reveals new dimensions to a tragic subject. It reshapes our historical understanding by giving us a remarkable model of cross-species inclusivity. I want to start reading it all over again to see just how Kean pulled this off."
– Carol J. Adams, author The Sexual Politics of Meat

"Beginning with the mass slaughter of household pets immediately after Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939, Kean's compelling account explores the varied ways in which domesticated animals experienced the Home Front. With the exception of what contemporaries criticized as 'the holocaust of pets', most of these experiences were shared by human and non-human animals. By retrieving evidence of the lives of individual companion animals, as well as by documenting the increasing official acknowledgment of their value and standing, Kean offers a fresh perspective on what has often been called the 'People's War.'"
– Harriet Ritvo, author most recently of Noble Cows and Hybrid Zebras: Essays on Animals and History

"For those who think everything has been said about Britain's war, here is a book that will change our perspective on the popular image of the British people calmly coping with the challenges of the home front. Kean not only brings animals into the wartime narrative in their own right, but challenges the way historians have treated the wartime experience. This is a remarkably rich and detailed history, not only reconstructing the unknown story of the animal massacre, but in the process offering a profound view of the way animals and humans interact."
– Richard Overy, author of The Bombing War: Europe 1939–1945