‘Sir,- May I, as one of the legion of kennelmaids, reply to your correspondent, “A Kennelmaid.” It is indeed time that we had a union to look after our interests – the sooner the better. What other profession (excluding the nursing profession, which is, I believe, even worse off that we are) paid about 10s. to 15s. per week for skilled work, whose working hours are from 6.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. daily, including Sundays; often on during the night nursing sick puppies or adults, sitting up with a bitch during whelping, or travelling all night to shows? True, none but a genuine dog-lover could do it, and in many cases we poor mutts get so attached to our charges that we just stay on because we hate to leave them. We get an occasional half-day – never a free week-end, Sunday or Bank Holiday. Our food is usually very poor and insufficient in quantity, and most of our pay goes to supplement it and provide extra bedding and necessities in our bedroom. The usual allowance for laundry is 2s. The laundry charge is 9d. for holland and 1s for white coats, which leaves 3d. for “other items”! On one job I had to ride 5 1/4 miles on a motorbike to the village inn for a bath, although there were two baths in the house. In another post I arrived to find I was expected to allow 9 small dogs, in various stages of “itch,” to share my bedroom. Needless to say, I slept alone that night and left next day. At the moment, after 14 years’ experience in leading kennels of various breeds, from Alsatians to Pekingese, I am working 16 hours daily, including Sundays, for 12s. 6d. and my keep. I have no help. I am afraid to move on because the next job may be worse, whereas this one is just bearable. Also, joy of joys! I am allowed to keep my little Pekingese with me, and he is all I have of my own now, I couldn’t leave him behind, and my next employer might not allow a pet. Why do they object to giving their kennelmaids that pleasure? Ours is a hard life of eternal grind and disappointment, and often sadness when we lose our charges by death or through a sale. Surely we might be allowed our own pet if guaranteed well trained in every way? So many of us would repay that kindness a hundredfold, and few, if any, of us would abuse that privilege.

We work hard all weathers – frozen hands and feet, often soaked to the skin, other times exhausted by the heat; we put our show dogs “down to the minute”; we train our show pups to “show all out”; we seldom grouse, but conjure up a smile for our employers’ visitors; our kennels are reviewed for the big papers, but the woman who does all these things this is the conscientious, overworked, underpaid, drudge, and worthy of better pay and consideration. Yours, etc.,

Another Kennelmaid.’