Dogs under the occupation

Dogs under the occupation

Redactie 's profielfoto
Redactie 05 januari 2016 736

Because so many horses and donkeys were requisitioned in occupied Belgium, dogs had to provide even more pulling power than before the war. They were harnessed to dogcarts and pulled the milkman's milk, the baker's bread, and the farmer's children. However, the Germans, who were not familiar with the practice, rejected dogcarts as animal cruelty. And so ordinances were drawn up to forbid adults from sitting on dogcarts. In September 1917, a 40-frank tax was levied for keeping dogs. A sum that many could not pay. In the very same month, the occupier commandeered dogs with a shoulder height of more than 40 centimetres. Because of resistance, or because they could not pay the tax, rather a lot of people killed their faithful four-legged friends. In times of hunger, quite a few dogs were killed by their owners too.