WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 73, 11 October 1939, Page 4

WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY

Sir, —I wouder if lam alone, when I say that the sight -of wild animals J forced to live lor the whole of their lives in a narrow boxlike cage ? about Bft x 4ft and force:! by sheer terror; to go through a series of performances, during their brief periods of release., sickens me to the extreme, and makes me ashamed of being sy man. It is this thought that has prompted me to take up paper and" pen and to put out a feeler to gauge public thought. It appears to me that to shut up a lion, an animal byr in the habit of roaming over vast stretches of country, in a stinking travelling box, in which he car* barely stand upright is crueltv ant!

amiiii uyuyui, is ciueity unn torture of the lowest brand. Would we condemn our lowest criminals such treatment? Would we dare, in' these enlightened (lays to force sucla frightful custody upon the foulest murderer? Then Mr Editor in the name of all that's why inflict it upon an innocent dumb animal? It is completely beyond me what people see to amuse tihem in performances by wild animals. The modern zoo, is something of an, achi= cvement, by the introduction of " roomy dens in which the animals car* at least have exercise and freedom 0 f movement, but such sights as I have seen r ecentlv are surely a legacy of the old t'aj's 00 the Coloseum, of Rome ) the bull and hear baiting of Middle Ages England and' the Bull fighting of modern Spain. In *oy

humble opinion. Sir, travel]inffO would attract just as mtwiy more in fact, if they\were 1 the zoo section altogether^ Yours etc.., MERELY HUMAN, a