‘Sir, - I cannot agree at all with your correspondent “A Happy Kennelmaid.” It is true that in all walks of life there are hardships, inevitable ones, but it is not these or hard work I or many others complain about. It is the quite unnecessary hardships far too many kennelmaids have to suffer that we protest so strongly against, and because we do protest it is nonsense to suggest we are not genuine dog-lovers. Suffering on our part does not help the dogs  in any way.

The lot of all workers would indeed be a sorry one if they were to remain so loyal as to never raise any sort of protest against injustices done to them. It is noble, no doubt, to be willing to work for love of dogs alone, giving no thought to oneself in any respect, but I fail to see why anybody should be expected to do so. If people cannot or will not give their workers a fair return for their work, they ought not, in my opinion, to employ labour. Surely it does not conclusively prove one’s love for dogs is any the less devoted because one wants to gain through that love a decent living. Many kennel-owners make a very comfortable living out of their dogs, but nobody accuses them, for that reason, of not being true dog-lovers.

I wonder what your various correspondents call a good salary? Two posts were offered to me lately; in each case, I was to manage boarding and breeding kennels, also train pupils. My salary in one instance was to be the princely sum of £30 per annum, in the other, £36! It would be absolutely impossible to ever save enough out of such sums as these to start a kennel of one’s own; as that is my ambition, and one which I am determined to realise, it is evident I will have to do so by other means than kennel work, and so will other kennelmaids who have the same ambition – unless they are for ever going to put up with the second-best thing – looking at other people’s dogs.- Yours, etc.

A Sorely Tried Kennelmaid.'