3-038-981 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The market for dogs' and cats' flesh, Paris, (sketch by balloon post), 1871. The Franco-Prussian War. 'Our Artists in the besieged city of Paris have sent us, by the usual balloon post, which is now a regular institution, a number of sketches representing the diverse expedients lately adopted there for carrying on the defence of that unfortunate city, [including] one of a dog-and-cat-butcher's stall in the Marché St. Germain...Eating is quite as important a part of this business as fighting, and the approach of hunger is more to be feared than a Prussian bombardment or assault. It was found advisable to order the killing of the wild beasts and birds in the zoological collections, both at the Jardin des Plantes and at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, as well to save the fodder, corn, hay, and horseflesh which they had been accustomed to consume, as to make the flesh of such animals as the human appetite can stomach available for the public need. While six or seven hundred horses were daily slaughtered for food, their flesh being sold at a franc and a half the half-kilogramme or pound, while dogs' flesh was worth two francs the pound, and cats and rats were alike the food of Frenchmen'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.