The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-24
THE WILD
ANIMAL BUSINESS
The Giraffe the Most Expensive
Wild Animal--DifficultieS of
Shipping the Beasts-.TrOubles
of an Ocean Voyage on a Wild
Animal Ship.

What is the most valuable animal
now?" was asked of one of the most
experienced wild animal collectors and
dealers of the United States by a re-
porter of the -.
THE giraffe" he answered. ut is
the most expensive animal now, not
only because it is rather rare. but be-
cause it is at the same time one of the
most difficult to catch and to keep after
you catch it, and the worst kind of an
animal to ship.
"A captured giraffe has to be han
died like bric-a-brac. And 1t is
mighty big piece of bric-a-brac, too.
Imagine a delicately carved cabinet
twelve feet high, as crazy as whole
lunatic asylum and as powerful and
quick and dangerous as an automo-
bile. 1t may be hard to imagine such
thing, but it isn't any harder than 1t
is to handle a fully grown giraffe.
"a wild animal dealer has to take
all the risks. The shows and menag-
cries and parks that buy from him,
don't pay for an animal until 1t is de-
livered. Generally they want it de-
livered in the place they have set for
1t. Sometimes they will take 1t at the
ship or at the train, but usually they
expect us to deliver the beast right in
their place.
consequently the risk is enormous
and we have to charge a price that
will make up for the danger of loss.
We cannot insure our beasts during
TRANSPORTATION except in rare In
stances, II they die during voyage
or are washed overheard or thrown
into the sea to save the ship, the loss
is ours. The only insurance we can
get as rule is insurance as cargo,
which we can collect only IN case the
ship itself is lost
Now we have just had one expert
ence that illustrates my point We
shipped an immense lot of exception
ally fine animals in Calcutta-four
baby elephants, Ave tigers from Ben
gal, four leopards and about 200 cranes,
some of which were so rare that they
had not even been identified by Indian
biologists. We also had thirty-fve SER
pents, among them a python twenty
feet long,
"Well. our animal men who accom-
panied the shipment got them through
all right for thirty-three days until we
struck the Newfoundland banks when
a sleet storm hammered the ship, and
a
mendous icy seas that swept her decks
| continually.
Can. as and straw were piled around
the animals and everything was done
by our men that was possible. But
when morning came three elephants,
three tigers, two leopards, almost all
the rare cranes and every one of the
snakes lay dead and had to be thrown
over board.
'aThis shows why wild animals cost
SO much And there are many other
risks Last year one of the big
American animal dealers heard from
beast catcher in Rangoon that he had
seven fine full-grown rhinocerii in per-
feet condition.
HE sent a cable message at once ac-
cepting the animals and then hurriedly
had timbers cut and shaped to build
the great pens that are necessary to
hold powerful beasts like these on a
steamship.
well, the expense of these pens and
the freight charge for shipping them
from America more than half way
around the world. made a big item in
themselves. Then there were the ex-
penses Of the dealer and the three as
sistants whom he had to take with him.
After their long voyage to Rangoon
they found a difficult trip into the in
terror before them. They had to drag
the heavy timbers for the pens with
them, knowing from bitter previous ex-
perience that the Oriental animal
catchers would be provided with moth
ing except bamboo cages-tough and
strong enough so long as they are sta
tionary, but almost sure to work apart
when they are moved over bad roads
"At last they reached their objective
point and then, after all their work and
expenditure, they found three small,
sickly and poor specimens.
mot one of them was in condition
to be shipped even to the coast. not to
mention the long ocean voyage to
America. So here were almost four
months wasted, many thousands of dol
lars lost, and, worst of all, no rhinoce-
ros at the very time when a dozen me-
nageries were offering big amounts of
money for specimens.
But we have no redress. Wild ami
NAL dealers, in the nature of the case,
have to do business with native hun
ters who are neither amenable to law
or responsible financially, however hon
est their intentions may be.
you can't send the police out to
serve a warrant or papers in dam
age suit on a man who lives a couple
of hundred miles away from civiliza-
ton in a jungle with tigers and PAN
theirs and boa constructors around him
for friends and neighbors. III he fails
to keep his contract with us, we simply
have to grin and bear It.
shipping the beasts is always a
hard job. Sailors are afraid of wild
animals and they handle the cargoes
with such unwiliingness that they often
drop a cage into the hold and kill or
injure the beast because thew are
afraid 10 get near enough to II 10
guide or swing II properly.
II have often put my arm into "a
cage and rubbed a tiger or a lion
merely I'm order 20 show the crew OF
the ship that they need not be appre-
hensive. But they generally don't 40
anything except 10 grin sheepishly and
say, "All right, mister. You're wet
come 10 DO them kind OF foolish things
an you please. Wed rather not
THE consequence ~ that when
storm comes and the seas sweep the
vessel and tear few cages from their
fastening the Wild animal men rarely
get any help from the crew and many
4 rare and valuable beast has been