The ways in which the end of life of an animal is understood and
undertaken depend on the category of the animal and its position in
relation to humans. In this paper, we explore how transformations in
human–animal relationality, including practices and cultural conceptions
about animals become apparent in the norms and practices regarding the
killing of animals. We focus here on rats and cats, species whose
position in society has always been liminal, especially between the
category of pet and that of pest but also between wild and domesticated.
Rats and cats have co-existed with each other and with humans since a
very long time and the three species have co-evolved in a constant dance
of mutual interests and conflicts. The shared history of this
multispecies network reflects in many ways how humans have related to
animals in different historical and spatial contexts and how these
relations have transformed. By discussing the entanglement of rats, cats
and humans in the close connection between caring and killing we wish
to highlight the ways in which human–animal relations are manifested in
the North of Europe during the 20th century. The specific context of the
study is Sweden and Finland, countries that share similar history and
cultural characteristics. In our analysis we draw from various data
collected in both countries, including written narratives from an
nationwide writing collection and historic documents such as the
journals of animal welfare societies and documents concerning the
extermination of rats.