What Performing Animals Earn.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 80

What Performing Animals Earn.

To invest one's money in the purchase of wild, forest-bred i animal6, in order to team the eain£ for 'public performances, is a somewhat sp'cfcuiative 1 ' business j for apart froiri the expense of capture and the- 66et' of training- there is always a • dariger thd.tr th'fe animals will fail to become acclimatised to foreign countries, and die when the unlucky showman or circus proprietor Ijas 'spent hwidreds of pounds upon. them. "Lord" George Sanger has confessed that he once jSaid £1200 cash down for 6ix yowigi giraffes. Two days later two of the animals died, and shortly afterwards the remaining four died also. Barnum used to say that only one elephant, tiger, lion, or monkey in six which he purchased brought him any profit, and other showmen make similar complaints. The mo3t aggravating part of the business is, however, that often when, an animal has been trained, seems to be thoroughly used to foreign climates, and ie repaying some of th© money its owner has spent on its purchase and reaving it, it suddenly dies. Take the case of Consul, for instance, Mr Bostoek's remarkable chimpanzee, which died some time ago in Berlin. This animal was insured for £25,000, and was earning from £100 to £150 a week when it died 1 . Furthermore, Sir Bostock had booked contracts for it to appear at a .price of £500 per week. Luckily Mr Bostock was able to discover two other exceptionally fine specimens of the chimpanzee tribe, which he has named Consul I and Consul IT. The former," which is die- cleverer animal of the two, earns as much as £160 per week. Consul II 'is 'generally booked at £70 per week, while Esau, another of Mr Bostock'e wonderful chimpanzees, appears at £80. Theso animals are most difficult to rear, clophauts, tigers, and lions, which cost any thing from £200 to £500 each, being also very siisceptible to climatic changes. They fully repay the care and attention which n.ust bo bestowed upon them, however, j^lr Bostoek, for instance, ho.** a diminutive elephant for which he hae been offered earns varying from £1000 to £2400, all of which he has .refused. This is the smaLlesfc performing elephant in the world, and earns from £80 to £100 per week. Another tixrapo of elephants earn from £90 to £125 per week, & group of tigers from £100 to £150, while a group of lions bring in as much as £200 per week.

Performing dogs aro perhaps the least expensive. These animals can now be bought for about £10 apiece, and well trained easily secure £50 per week. Some of Mr Bostook's doge earn as much as £80 per week, while from £50 to £80 is paid for tJic performances of his sea-lions.