October 15, 1934

Raymond Poincare (August 20, 1860 to October 15, 1934) was President or Premier of France during the turbulent years surrounding and including World War I. Thus his celebrity status was not surprising. In 1913 the Auckland Star (the July 3 issue) ran an article stressing the humility and domesticity of this world leader. The article instanced Poincare's refusal to have a military sentry outside his bedroom at night.

A paragraph in the article begins: "And M. Poincare certainly loves his own fireside - and his pets.". As a boy he had many pets, including squirrels, cats, and a dog named Pompon. "Today his favorite companions are Scott, his collie,  his faithful watch dog Brave who guards his country house at Sampigny, and his Siamese cat Gris-gris....[T]here is nothing M. Poincare delights in more than to spend a quiet evening with his books and his four-footed companions."

Elsewhere we read that he told a friend:
You don't know how much pleasure I owe to these mysterious creatures. Their instinct is above our most erudite and ... subtle reasonings. I remark in them a sense of logic far deeper than that manifested by many human beings, and refinements of sensibility of which many individuals seem to me to be incapable.

Raymond Poincare, was a lawyer before his political offices, and a member of the Academie Francaise as  author of books like Idees Contemporaine, and Causes Litteraires et Artistiques.  I suspect his praise of animals reflects actually his opinion of people.