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Filthy Cellars And Healthy Pets: Relationships Between Public Health, Pets And Veterinarians In Cincinnati Prior To World War I, Kelly Wenig

Kelly Wenig

In 1868, Board of Health officials in the city of Cincinnati declared that all animals had to be removed from the basements of city residences. In his report on the state of the city, health officer William C. Clendenin commented that “[t]he extent to which cellars are used throughout the city as depositories for rubbish and filth is truly surprising; --many respectable people [keep] geese, chickens, dogs, and even calves in their cellars…Filthy cellars, especially when they are very damp, are a very certain cause of sickness.”1 For most of the nineteenth century, cows, chickens, sheep, dogs and cats were …