In 1939, 400,000 cats and dogs were massacred in Britain, their corpses heaped up outside veterinarians offices. Fear of the imminent German blitz led the government to urge pet owners to spare their animal companions so that they would not suffer in the bombing raids. Hilda Keans gripping narrative of this little-known event includes tales of smuggling pets into bomb shelters, trading bits of cat food on the black market, and preemptively killing thousands of pets at the start of the war to save the food supplies in England.

Introducing animals, historians, and the "people's war" -- Being a pet in the 1920s and 1930s : a chronicle of a massacre foretold? -- September 1939 : no human panic. 400,000 animals killed in four days -- Disrupting previous stories : a phony war for whom? -- Building cross-species experience : eating and food in war -- Blurring the boundarie : who is going to ground? who is protecting whom? -- The growing strength of animal-human families and the wartime state -- Emotion, utility, morale on the home front : animal-human relationships -- Conclusion : change and continuity. Remembering and forgetting animals during the Second World War.