ANIMALS IN A FIRE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9, 4 August 1911, Page 8

ANIMALS IN A FIRE.

The recent terrible fire at the Edinburgh Palace Music Hall (Scotland) shows how exceedingly dangerous animals are when brought face to face with fire. It will be remembered that a lion belonging to the ill-fated "star," Lafayette, went quite mad with terror at the sight of the flames, and probably was the cause of the loss of so many lives. The fear which flames inspire in animals often take strange forms. A horse, for instancej will remain in his stable until burnt to death simply because, "in his terror, he feels that his stable must be the safest place. Indeed, very often horses, when taken out of a burning stable, will dash back into the flames again and perish. It is only with the utmost difficulty that fire brigade horses are trained to get used to the glare of the fire and to the crackle of the flames. The King's horses are about the only other horses which are trained in like manner. Animals with young show a disdain of fire which is often extremely heroic. A cat will allow itself to be burnt to death with its kittens rather than leave them. In the cases of Zoo fires, monkeys will often do the same. The most recent instance of such heroism was shown during the heath fire at Suningdale (Eng.) a few months ago, when numbers of mother birds were afterwards found blackened and charred, but still sitting on their nests of eggs or little ones.