Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-03-31

FOOD FUR ANIMALS.
Fsetsning Horses for the Lions.
Philadelphia Times.

FOOD FOR ANIMALS.
r.essning Horsss for the Lions.
Times
Visitors to the geological garden have |
noticed down in the lower end of the |
grounds, little to the right of the place |
where the polar bears are kept, line of
low, rambling buildings built against the |
fence which separates the grounds from a |
long strip of land lying between the gar
dens and the New York branch of the |
railroad. The last of these |
buildings is good deal better than the |
rest, being tall, close, frame shanty of
pine boards and having door to it.
The others, small, more uneven and
without any doors, are nothing more
than mere sheds or stalls. Al
ways in front of them will
be seen pile of clover hay, with half a
dozen, more or less, sorry-iooking horses,
the sole occupants of the she'd, feeding
thereon. An inspection of these animals
will usually show plethora Of defects in
the way of damaged eyes or spawned
of instances, being the regular accOmpani-
way of describing horse broken down by
fulness. Occasionally younger animals
may be seen in the stalls, but these are
also suffering from some affection Of body
or limb and stand on the same footing as
the rest.
These horses, once they get u1der the
above described sheds, have all one CON-
mon destiny-they are to 6e killed and
dressed as food for the animals of the zoe
logical garden. The amount of food con-
sumed 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 con-
sumo about ia pounds of horse meat a
day. Four horses week is the usual
average 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, the elephant
eating about 100 pounds of hay
every twenty-four hours. And in order
to keep up his appetite the hay must he
the best going, being invariably timothy of
the best grade. Other animals that eat
hay are the giraffe, the camels, the deer,
zebra and different animals of the cattle
species. Most of 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 80, 600 weight, or ton and a-half.
The price for timothy is about $50 per ton.
which makes the three tons per week equal
to $50. The mixed hay costs in the nigh
bOrhOOd Of $1S ton, thus making the
weekly cost of that necessary supply $54,
which. added to the $50, gives the weekly
cost OF hay alone in the sum of $114.
As to the cost of the horse meat for the
other animals, that is not SO much as might
be imagined. The horses are usually pur-
chased at the horse market by one of the
employed at the gardens, who has all 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 fO0ts up to
about twenty dollars week. The lions,
tigars, Ieopards and pumas are not the
only animals that are fed on horse meat.
Tho wolves and foxes and prairie dogs and
monkeys and black bears also come in for
their share of the supplies, being fed almost
altogether on this kind of meat. 1t is re-
garded as singular that these animals
lions, tigers and leopards-should make
no distinction between horse meat and
beef, albeit it is point decidedly in favor
with the pocket-books of the corporators
of the gardens. For four years preceding
their discovery that the animals would eat
horse meat as we'll as beef they kept feed
ing 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 pro-
vision was made accordingly. Since
then the society has been practicing judi
cious economy by feeding the animals on
horse meat altogether, and they save about
fifty per cent.
The cost of feeding tho lions, tigers, leop-
week. Add to this the $114, cost of feed
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 hum
dred and one other creatures requiring, in
many cases, much more delicate and cost
ly 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 alto
gether one hundred pounds Of fish daily.
Next in point Of delicate liv-
ers come the polar bears, whose
regular diet is bread soaked in milk, with
fish now and then for a change. The
black bears are also given bread, 100
pounds being used daily. Vegetables of
almost every sort are fed literally to the
different animals-cabbage, potatoes, car
rOts, onion 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 and turnips
and potatoes. Bran and oats and corn are
also literally distributed-mostly once or
twice week-among the hay eating ami
mails. 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 collec-
tion at present, the cost of keeping this
grinning satire on the human species is
not multiplied. Another delicacy which |
must not be omitted in the diet of the |
polar bears is the fish oil, of which they
get several supplies q week. After the !
hay the oats is perhaps the next chief
source of expense in the way of animal !
food. AS Tor the fowls, the large ones are |
fed on corn, while the small birds are fed on |
canary seed, and all of them now and then
get small chunk of meat. The cost of |
feeding the animals alone foots up to !
about 800 day. All the horses that 90 !
to supply the meat-eating animals are killed |
on the ground, in the small slaughter house |
that stands at the lower end of the row of
sheds in the lower part of the garden.