GERMANY: Bears, Monkeys & Goring

GERMANY

Bears, Monkeys & Göring

Ever since charges of cruelty to humans began to be bandied against Nazi Storm Troops, members of the Hitler Government have come out strongly on all occasions against cruelty to animals.

Throughout Germany the profession of exhibiting a dancing bear has been banned (TIME, April 17) and Italians with monkeys on strings have been streaking out of Germany.

In Berlin last week the Government promulgated, to take effect Jan. 2, 1934, “the strictest law in the world against cruelty to animals” according to the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment. For “willful cruelty” to an animal the punishment will be two years in jail. Domestic animals may not be simply abandoned, nor may dogs be trained to chase cats, foxes or other animals. Dogs’ and horses’ tails cannot be bobbed. Bull-necked Prussian Premier Hermann Wilhelm Göring, leading spirit in the Nazi be-kind-to-animals crusade, was again drawn last week by German cartoonists receiving the Nazi salute from all sorts of animals and saluting them in return.