World War One exhibition reveals how pets provided comfort in the French trenches

During World War One, as well as horses, mules and pigeons, there were lots of cats in the trenches. As entire French villages disappeared into a sea of mud and the inhabitants fled for their lives, domesticated cats were very often left behind. Starving, they approached the trenches searching for food and, when the soldiers fed them, they moved in. 

“They even had kittens there,” says Juliette Gouesnard, the curator of a new exhibition exploring the role of stray cats and dogs in the trenches of the Great War.

“We might believe that they kept them for hunting rodents, but dogs did that. Cats aren’t very efficient at ratting. These cats became attached to particular soldiers. Some of them even wandered from French to German trenches, giving rise to people calling them spy cats, but there was a kind of unspoken bilateral agreement not to shoot them.

“Soldiers liked stroking the cats, holding them, cuddling them, sleeping with them for comfort. Some became regimental mascots, and others moved into infirmaries. They became part of the routine, receiving rations at the same time as everyone else. They occupied much the same position as ships’ cats, which were very typical on British ships, both civilian and military. They controlled the rodent population, but they were mainly communal pets.”

The exhibition is in two parts, with the second section exploring the roles
of dogs in the trenches. It is richly illustrated with photos.

“Some dogs were taken to the war as service dogs, trained to find wounded soldiers on the battlefield, carry messages and small parcels, or pull dog carts. ‘Chiens sentinelles’ were trained to raise the alarm about attacks, approaching enemies and toxic gas,” says Mme. Gouesnard. “Some of them became famous, like an American bulldog cross called Stubby, the official mascot of the 102nd Infantry Regiment. He is reputed to have taken part in 17 battles, saved troops from gas attacks and captured a German spy.

“In 1915, at least 436 dogs (‘Poilus d’Alaska’) were secretly imported from Alaska by Captain Louis Moufflet and Lieutenant René Haas and were used in snowy areas of the Vosges to pull sleds transporting supplies. Only 247 of these dogs survived the war, and many of them received war medals,” she adds.

“At the end of the war, lots of English soldiers wanted to take their adopted dogs back to the UK, but it was forbidden because of rabies. Some of them smuggled their dogs back to the UK anyway, but many soldiers sadly ended up having to abandon their canine friends.”

The exhibition takes a closer, more intimate look at daily life in the trenches and uses correspondence and diaries to provide context. “World War One was a static war where soldiers ended up just refusing to leave the territory. It was cold, it was boring, it was dirty. The arrival of an animal often saved combatants from fear, loneliness and depression.”

Photographs of soldiers in the trenches with rescued cats and dogs were also used as propaganda, humanising the soldiers and reinforcing their heroism.

The exhibition is curated in English as well as French and includes lots of images and texts especially for children, as well as two fictional mascots who guide children round the displays and explain them. It is completely free.

Poilus : Histoire des chats et chiens de la Grande Guerre is at the Centre d’Histoire of the Memorial 14-18 museum in Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) and runs until January 3, 2027. Opening hours and dates on the website. There is a boutique and, although there isn’t a cafe, you can buy tea and coffee
at the reception.