PET SHOP WRECKED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19880, 6 March 1939, Page 5

PET SHOP WRECKED

ESCAPED CHIMPANZEE

EXCITEMENT IN NEW YORK

NEW YORK, Feb. 22

A 12st. female chimpanzee from the Belgian Congo jungle broke loose from its cage in a Fifth Avenue pet market two clays ago.

While the traffic in the fashionable thoroughfare was disrupted for an hour by thousands of spectators, the

animal bit and tore the proprietress, tossed a window-full of puppies about and broke furniture. Ultimately, it was shot dead by an official of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, two of whose shots penetrated the wall of a neighbouring shop, and almost hit the proprietor.

The owner of the chimpanzee, who had only purchased her en the previous day, screamed and begged the executioner to spare the animal, which cost him £l6O. However, when the beast began to hammer the shop window, and seemed likely to escape into the street, witli unpredictable consequences, the proprietor was overruled, and the chimpanzee, which was destined for the exhibition at the New York World's Fair, was destroyed. The proprietor of the chimpanzee. looking ruefully at the completelywrecked shop, said he was of opinion that the animal understood only Portuguese and, therefore, ran amok.