FLYING MENAGERIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

FLYING MENAGERIES

LIVESTOCK CONVEYED BY AIR GROWING FORM OF TRAFFIC ALLIGATORS IN CRATES A specially interesting feature cf present-day /airway traffic in Britain '8 the increase which continues to be recorded in the transport of livestock by air. / " What our waybills show us," said an official of Imperial Airways recently, " is that more and more pedigree animals, such as dogs and cats, are being sent to the Continent by air. There is also a growing traffic in the air despatch of day-old chicks from poultry farms in England to similar establishments throughout Europe, while from along the Empire routes tropical fish in tanks are now consigned to London by air. Not long ago we received a•' crate of live locusts from Africa, intended for experiments in this country with a view to the extermination of the locust plague by chemical means.

"A list which has just been brought up-to-date by our freight department shows the variety of the livestock we are called upon to handfb. It includes dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, small beare, lion cubs, mice, live locusts in crates, parrots, turkeys, day-old chicks, live fish in tanks, racing pigeons, bees, Jive alligators and rare zoo specimens. " One day we brought over a fullygrown lion from the Continent in a special cage. On another occasion we fixed up the freight compartment of a machine as a horse-box, so as to fly over a valuable performing horse from Paris. Sometimes an aircraft will arrive with a regular menagerie t on board—animals, birds, and all kinds of tropical, fish in tanks; while from one of the machines which landed one evening we unloaded a number of live alligators in crates. "As a means of transport for livestock the air is now recognised as ideal. Valuable animals of the pedigree type, for example, make their journey by air in a minimum of time, while during their periods of transport they can be fed and receive special attention from the airway staff, arriving at their destinations in a condition which gives them every chance of success if, as we often find to bo the case, they have been sent to take part in some exhibition or show."