MUST PAY LION’S DOCTOR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 12 April 1929, Page 10

MUST PAY LION’S DOCTOR.

CIRCUS MAN ORDERED TO SETTLE FRENCH APPEAL DECISION. A curious case in which a circus lion figures hais just been settled by the Numcy Appeal Court, in north-eastern France. In July, 1927, a German circus visited Nancy, where one of its pet lions, named Sultan, had to be shot by a keeper in -self-defence. The lion was not killed and so a surgeon, Dr Dennior was called in to extract the bullet. He did so and then 'attended other animals belonging to the circus. His bill for medical attendance was 17.550 francs and 115,000 francs for extraetig the bullet, or respectively £144 and £l 2O. The owner of the circus refused to pay the bill, declaring that the whole affair was a. “publicity stunt’’ for which he was not responsible, and that, at any rate, Sultan was not worth the 15,000 francs asked for extracting the bullet, particularly as lie had subsequently died. The litigation ' continued, until last year the lower court appointed a committee of veterinary surgeons to investigate. Their report showed that Dr Dennier had been called in with the full authority of the circus owner, and that tin 1 operation had been dangerous “because the practitioner was bitten and clawed by the patient.’’ The circus proprietor on being ordered to pay up appealed, and the appeal just decided has reduced the doctor’s bill.to 10,350 francs, or £BS.