Annual reports of Russian Emperors hunt were published in work-of-art hand painted bulletins, annually. Those are examples of those, with a detailed list of how much of each specie has been hunted down. For example the Imperial Hunt Bulletin of 1908 reports that they have hunted down:
Sixteen bears,
Six bobcats,
Seven elks,
Three deers,
453 hares.
Also tens of badgers, some otters, martens, hundreds of ferrets and ermines.
Looks pretty normal for the hunters, till things don’t go as bas as:
“in year 1908 it was hunted Seven hundred and twelve stray dogs, one thousand two hundred eighty five cats.”. WHAT?! Can this be some sort of a mistake or coded words for something else?
Looks like no. Let’s see the imperial hunt bulletin of 1900 – “in 1902 719 stray dogs and 1010 cats hunted down”
Year 1902: 899 dogs, 1322 cats…
Year 1911: total 631 dogs and 1177 cats.
Well, I am not sure that emperor family in person has hunted dogs and cats, however for some reason they are included in the reports for some reason.
Usually hunt was held to get the meat or to get the fur, however what was the purpose to hunt down the cats?
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