Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1896 — The Fierce Zebra. [ARTICLE]

The Fierce Zebra.

It always appeared to the writer that Sutton, the head keeper of the Zoo, treated lions, and some male tigers, as if they were dogs; while all the lionesses, the leopards, pumas, and most tigers were treated as cats. Lionesses he never touched with the hand, and leopards except the snow-leopards, very seldom; but some of the tigers and the male lions behaved in their dealings with him exactly as if they were domesticated animals. Bears, he maintained, always became unsafe to handle after they were full grown, though often tame and friendly when cubs. Polar bears, on the other hand, he looked upon as always dangerous and quite untamable, having a kind of incurable levity which makes them absolutely without respect or fear for man, even when they are kept in captivity. In the case of the larger cats, age and ill-temper do not necesaril.v Increase together. In all the years spent in the care of the large carnivora, he never received an Injury. Yet, though never hurt by the bears or lions, he was nearly killed by a zebra. The correct facts of this curious accident were as follows: The zebra, which was known to be very savage, was turned out into a yard, the sliding door between the yard and its stall being pushed to, but not fastened by the man whose duty it was to do so. Sutton was in the inner stall, putting in fresh hay, when the zebra heard him. He also heard It tret up to the door, and the next moment saw its muzzle pushed against the rack which had been left between the edge of the door and the post. It slid the door back in a moment, ran in, and stooping its head, seized him below the knee, and threw him violently on his back. It held on to his leg, biting so severely that is cracked the shin bone, though Sutton, who was lying on his back, kicked it hard with the other foot. The other men drove it off with stable forks, but the keeper was laid up for thirteen weeks from the effects of the bite.