Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-04-14
FOOD FOR ANIMALS.
rArrENING HORSES FOR THE LIONS,
TIGERS AND PANTHERs AT THE zoo.
rPhiladelpila Times.1

have noticed down in the lower end OF
the grounds, little to the right of the
place where the polar bears are kept.
q line Of low. rambling buildings built
against the fence which separates the
grounds from a long strip OF land
living between the Gardens and the
New York branch of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. The last of these buildings
is a good deal better than the rest,
being q tall, close, frame shanty of
pine boards and having a door to it.
The others, smaller, more uneven and
without any doors, are nothing more
than mere sheds or stalls. Always In
front of them will be seen a pile OF
clover hay, with half dozen, more or
less. sorry-looking horses, the sole oc-
cupants of the sheds, feeding thereon.
An inspection of these animals will
usually show a plethora of defects in
the way of damaged eyes or spawned
Joints or broken wind, all, in the ma
iority of instances, being the regular
accompaniments of old age and being
but another way of describing horse
broken down by weight of years and
past his stage of usefulness, Occa-
sionalIy younger animals may be seen
in the stalls, but these are also suffer-
ing from some affection OF body or
limb and stand on the same footing as
the rest.
FOOD FOR THE BEASTS.
These horses, once they get under
the above described sheds, have all
one common destiny-they are to be
killed and dressed as food for the anil
mails of the Geological Garden. The
amount of food consumed daily by the
animals, large and small, is no little.
The chief meat-eating animals are the
lions, tigers. leopards, pumas and
hyenas. Altogether they consume
about ITS pounds of horse meat day.
Four horses week is the usual aver
age in keeping up the supply of these
animals alone. Next in point of heavy
feeding come the elephants. Their
chief. food is hay, of which it takes
about four times as much to keep an
elephant as it does to keep horse, tn :
elephant eating about 100 pounds of
hay every twenty-four hours. And in
order to keep up his appetite the hay
must be the best going, being invaria-
bly, timothy of the best grade. Other
animals that eat hay are the giraffes,
the camels, the deer, zebra and differ
ent animals of the cattle species. Most
all these are fed on what is known as
mixed hay, timothy and clover, which
is about twenty per cent. cheaper than
the timothy alone. Two wagon loads
of each per week is about the amount
used. Each wagon load is supposed
to contain 70. 900 weight, or a ton end
hall. The price for timothy is about
$50 per ton, which makes the three
tons equal to $50. The mixed hay
costs in the neighborhood of $lS a
ton, thus making the weekly cost of
that necessary supply S54, which,
added to the $50, gives the weekly
cost of hay alone in the sum of. Sll4.
As to the cost of the horse meat for
the other animals, this is not so much
as might be imagined. The horses
are usually purchased at the horse
market by one of the employees at the
Gardens, who has oil such work in
charge. The horses, as above stated,
are usually animals which have be-
come superannuated and useless. The
average price paid per head is about
five dollars. As four horses per week
suffice, the cost for horse meat foots up
to about twenty dollars u week. The
lions, tigers, leopards and pumas are
not the only animals that are fed on
horse meat. The wolves, foxes, prairie
dogs, monkeys and black bears also
come in for their share of the supplies,
being fed almost altogether on this
kind of meat. 1t is regarded as sin
gular that these animals-lions, tigers
and leopards-should make no distinc-
tion between horse meat and beef,
albeit it is point decidedly in favor
with the pocket-books of the corpora
tors of the Gardens. For four years
preceding their discovery that the ami
mails would eat horse meat as well as
beef they kept feeding them on the
latter. Two years ago it was found
that they would eat the flesh of horses
as quick as that of cows, and provision
was made accordingly. Since then the
society has been practicing judicious
economy by feeding the animals on
horse meat altogether, and they save
about fifty per cent
The cost of feeding the lions, tigers,
leopards and pumas as stated is about
$40 a week. Add to this the $1l4,
cost of feeding the larger animals,
elephants, giraffes and others, and the
cost is $134. This does not nearly
represent all the animals fed in the
garden, nor does it come near being
the chief item of cost. There are a
hundred and one other creatures, re-
quiring, in many cases, much more
delicate an6 costly food The sea
lions have to be fed on fish, usually
fresh and salt mackerel, each animal
taking twelve or fifteen to each meal
twice day, and consuming altogether
100 pounds of fish daily. Next in
point of delicate ivers come the polar
bears, whose regular diet is bread
soaked in milk, with fish now and then
for q change. The black bears are
also given bread, 100 pounds being
used daily. Vegetables of almost ev-
cry sort are fed literally to the differ
ent animals-cabbage, potatoes, car
rots, onions and turnips. The elephants
are great cabbage eaters, in addition to
their standard diet, hay. The giraffes,
singularly enough, are great onion
eaters, while the deer and goats and
animals of the COW species eat carrots,
turnips and potatoes. Bran, oats and
corn are also literally distributed
mostly once or twice a week-among
the hay-eating animals. The most
delicate and expensive feeder in the
place perhaps is the ourang-outang,
which gets beef, potatoes, bread and
honey. AS there is only one in the