The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-24
LIONS NAILS CLIPPED
 AFTER FIERCE FIGHT
Maudie, Ugliest Beast in Captivity, Resists All Elf
 forts to Bind Her.

New York. Aug 24-Maudie, the dowager ioness at Geological Park in The Bronx and the most vicious animal ever known there, fought like a demon yesterday when an effort was made to bind her with ropes so that Dr. w. Reid Blair. the Zoo veteri- nary, could take out four ingrowing claws on her left front paw which have been giving her much trouble. After she had reduced nearly a dozen of the ropes to shreds and had bitten through a five-eighths inch iron bar, efforts at tying her. were abandoned and it was decided to use chloroforea.
 Ordinarily from four to live ounces of the drug iss ufficient to put the most powerful lion to sleep, but Maudie absorbed exactly a pound and three-quarters of it before her fury passed and she ceased roaring and topp1ed over on her side. Inside of five minutes Dr. Blair had removed the offending claws. but for quarter of an hour it was touch and go with the big 400 pound beast because of the trem endou quantity of the anaesthesia she had taken. Her paw will be all right from now on, Dr. Blair says, and she will be walking on it by tomorrow or next day, but her disposition will never be any bet ter.
 Buffalo Jones trapped Maudie in South Africa back in 1909, when she Her ferocity was apparent from the
 first and on the voyage to New York she had to be bound inside her cage in order to get along with her at all. Since her arrival at the Bronx Zoo her viciousness has made her an especially unsatisfactory exhibit. She has spent much of her time in her sleeping quarters away from public gaze, not even venturing into the ad- gaze, not even venturing into the ad- the park visitors have left. Her fe- rocity has prevented her ever being placed in an enclosure with others of her kind.
 For several months Maudie, who is IT years old, had been so inactive that she had not worn her claws down by walking or scratching them upon walls. The sharp ends curled under and began growing into her flesh and the pain had rendered her more than usually vicious. Dr. Blair decided a week ago to take them out and has been waiting for a cool day so as to make the operation as com fortable as possible for the lion. A few minutes before noon yester- day the elevator cage was raised from the basement of the lion house to Maudie's iron barred pen. The | cages are so arranged that it is never necessary for attendants to enter them when they are occupied by ami ma1s. Bill Schwartz and Charley Grebe, both old "lion men," stood ready with the hose to drive Maudie, | but water wasn't necessary, and she | entered the small elevator enclosure without much urging. It was low cred to the basement, where it rests upon wheels which run on a track like a trolley car, and Schwartz and Grebe, aided by a couple of others, began their attempt to rope the i lioness.
 As they approached she shrank back. snarling and barring her yellow, sabre like teeth. The moose of a rope f1ecked her paw and she lunged forward with a roar that reverberat- ed through the basement and set the beasts above into full throated | chorus From then on Maudie's fury continued unabated. She clawed and bit at the stout ropes which were cast deftly about her neck and paws
 and the hempen strands parted be- fore they could be drawn tight. Bill Schwartz tried to force her into a
 corner of the cage, where she could
 not struggle. with enc of the three eigned for the purpose, but the
 liorYcss' Jaws closed down upon 1t and the tough iron snapped.
 Finally Used Chloroform.
 pr. Blair decided that all attempts to bind the lioness were useless and
 that, despite Maudie's age, he would
 have to take a chance with chloro-
 form. The hospital cage was en-
 closed with arpaulins to prevent the i fumes from dissipating. and wads of
 absorbent cotton soaked with the an-
 aesthesia were affixed to the ends of
 other iron bars and several of them
 thrust as near Maudie's nostrils as
 possible. She struck out furiously,
 but pr. Blair and his assista nts
 worked patiently and little by little the beast became quiet, so that the ! tarpaulins about the cage were dropped and the end of spray pump filled with chloroform was inserted It was emptied several times and the interior was filled with vapor before the noness fell over on her side with a groan and lay still.
 Dr. Blair worked deftly with his
 forceps, but before the fourth claw
 had been severed Maudie showed . signs of reviving. Twenty minutes later all danger that she would not