The Surgery of Wild Animals.

Southland Times, Issue 19465, 19 November 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Surgery of Wild Animals.

Tho wild animal doctor finds his patients in a Zoological Gardens. If the animals are propeily attended to they must be cared for in something more , than feeding them, off joints of oiS horse and other delicacies. „• In their native state their doctor ia Da__e -Tatii.e, bat in" captivity they heed the assisting htind of man. As a 'rule their chief need' is the hand of the doctor who is also a surgeon — someone to deal with their cjaws or hoofs, their teeth or their toe-nails. It is a difficult thing to operate upon a suffering wild animal, though not dangerous if proper precautions are taken to render the patient helpless. Elephants are easy to treat, likewise monkeys, but anything from the swamp or jungle must be approached with caution. A description is given of how" Blind Alice " — a lioness — was operated on ih the Zoolo-

gical Gardens, London. One morning she walked lame and it was seen through the tangle of hair overhanging a ponderous paw thatii claw, which was much longerandstronger than a man's finger, had curled upward and grown deep into a pad of the foot.. The lioness had to be lassoed by the paws through the bars, and with a natural fear sho fought like her kind roaring at her loudest. At last she was secured and thrown and then was chloroformed tomake the operation painless. In this unconscious condition she was handled easily, and every claw was cut since it was found that all had curled upwards and penetrated the flesh. Although in the case of "Blind Alice " the patient died, mainly from fretting as the result of the shock* operations on wild animals requiring the aid of the surgeon arc invambly successful.