Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1895 — DOCTORING WILD BEASTS. [ARTICLE]

DOCTORING WILD BEASTS.

A Big Menagerie Has Its Animal Hospital. The thousands of people who gaze with awe at the big elephants, poke sticks at the monkeys and try to play tricks on the inoffensive camels at Barnum & Bailey’s circus probably don't stop to realize that these animals have troubles enough of their own. Coming from many climes, subjected to the hardships of close confinement, the animals are continually falling victims to disease and accident. And therefore it is that fa'very important though comparatively unknown adjunct to the menagerie is the animal hospital, with its skillful staff of attendants. The ordinary family physician would be quite as useless as the layman in treating the ills of a boa constrictor or locating the seat of pain in a leopard. It takes a special training for that sort of practice, and on the skill of the animal hospital staff depends the saving of a small fortune to the circus people. The wild beasts are continually wrenching their muscles and breaking bones by getting their legs through the bars of the cages. In such a case a collar, with a long rope attached, is slipped over the neck of the animal, the rope pressed through a ring in the floor of the cage and the animal held down fast while the limb is stretched or the bone set. The animal is held fast to the floor for several days until recovery begins, and day by day the rope is loosened until he finally regains the liberty of his cage. When animals fall ill their medicine is administered with the food. Elephants are very fond of whisky, and any kind and amount of medicine can be administered to them in that way, for the elephant’s taste is not a discriminating one. The monkey is the one animal that defies the skill of the doctor. Consumption is the curse of the simian family, and from its clutches there is no escape. Dentistry is an important branch of the menagerie hospital. A decayed or even a loosened tooth will cause more uproar in the menagerie than a dozen broken limbs, and the howls of rage from a pain racked lion or tiger will send all the other animals cowering to the corners of their cages. Of course, there is only one remedy —extraction. Fifty-five towns and cities in England now destroy garbage by burning and use the heat to generate electricity for street lighting.