For, let it be known, all these things happen with animals. Headaches, indigestion, sore feet, tuberculosis, pneumonia, rheumatism, toothache, ingrowing toenails and even insanity are all logical excuses for assault and battery, even murder, when the culprits are the caged beasts of a menagerie or zoo. To say nothing of the hundred and one other and more natural causes which bring trouble, and which, by the way, can be found also on the police blotters of any large city. For, just as greed, hate, avarice, theft, the desire for power, the difference between races, viciousness and downright cantankerousness cause trouble for the police of a community, so do these things breed excitement in the menagerie. Behind every quarrel of the cages there is a reason, such as one finds in the records of the emergency hospital, or upon the complaint books of the police and justice courts.
INDIGESTION MAKES A LION VICIOUS IN THE ARENA.
NEVER TRY TO DO THIS IF THE LION HAS A HEADACHE.
Of all the causes, perhaps the physical ones are the occasions of the most brawls, those brought about by indigestion, headache and the sort. Sounds a bit unusual, doesn’t it, that animals should be subject to the same ailments as humans? Yet, on consideration, it shouldn’t. The mechanical construction of the body is about the same; why shouldn’t it be subject to the same ills? Headache, for instance, or rheumatism.
However, rheumatism with animals comes most often from a certain thing—inbreeding. When the father and the mother of the beast are too closely related, the result is a knotty, stumbling cub, practically saturated with rheumatism. The further result is a mean-minded animal, built upon the same principles as the human incorrigible. More than one “untamable” beast has been cured of rheumatism and become perfectly tractable. No mind in the world can be peaceable with every joint of the body aching!
The same is true of toothache, and in one instance, at least, I’ve seen it lead to some surprising things. Whether you know it or not, the hippopotamus, contrary to general belief, is one of the most amiable animals of the whole menagerie. A great river hog, he has little thought save his tank, his carrots and hay, and to be let alone. With one of the big shows is one of these beasts that is so tractable that he is allowed to wander at will wherever he cares to do so, and until a few months ago, his wanderings, especially when the show was in winter quarters, were made a thing of continual woe by two baby elephants who persisted in tormenting the poor old hippo by every sort of trick which came into their brains. They would slap him with their trunks, then move swiftly away. They would butt him about the yard, steal his food, and in general make life a burden, while the hippopotamus did nothing save grunt in piteous fashion and strive his best to get out of their path. Then came the change.
Bon, as the river hog was called, on a warm day this spring, waddled as usual into the winter quarters yard. The two elephants were there to receive him and to start their usual pranks. But the first move brought disaster. Wide open went the long-toothed mouth of the hippo, a bellowing grunt came from his big throat, and the elephants started hurriedly in the other direction, while Bon, pig-eyes gleaming viciously, short legs spraddled, strove his utmost to overtake them. At last he cornered them behind a parade wagon under one of the sheds and there he held them, trumpeting and squealing, until the animal men came to their assistance. But even then Bon would not release his victims. Instead he rushed at the caretakers, and for a time held the whole menagerie yard at bay, until his heavy cage could be pushed into position, other dens placed about him to form a barricade, and the hulking beast at last forced into his prison. Even there he continued to bellow and “open up,” until the circus men believed they had found something new, a hippopotamus that had gone “bad.” However, the superintendent held a different idea.
“Thought I noticed a hole in one o’ them tushes when he opened up the last time,” he announced. “I’ll wait until he quiets down and take a look.”