OF WILD ANIMALS 205 



and gardens are miserable and unhappy, and that all such 

 institutions should be "abolished?" What is truth? 



In the first place, there is no sound reasoning or logic in 

 assuming that the persons of animals, tame or wild, are 

 any more sacred than those of men, women and children. We 

 hold that it is no more "cruelty" for an ape or a dog to work 

 in training quarters or on the stage than it is for men, women 

 and young people to work as acrobats, or actors, or to engage 

 in honest toil eight hours per day. Who gave to any warm- 

 blooded animal that consumes food and requires shelter the 

 right to live without work? No one! I am sure that no 

 trained bear of my acquaintance ever had to work as hard for 

 his food and shelter as does the average bear out in the wilds. 

 In order to find enough to eat the latter is compelled to hustle 

 hard from dawn till dark. I have seen that the Rocky Moun- 

 tain grizzly feels forced to dig a big hole three feet deep in 

 hard, rocky ground, to get one tiny ground squirrel the size of 

 a chipmunk, — and weighing only eight or nine ounces. Now, 

 has he anything "on" the performing bear? Decidedly not. 



I regard the sentimental Jacklondon idea, that no wild 

 animal should be made to work on the stage or in the show-ring, 

 as illogical and absurd. Human beings who sanely work are 

 much happier per capita than those who do nothing but loaf 

 and grouch. I have worked, horse-hard, throughout all the 

 adult years of my life; and it has been good for me. I know 

 that it is no more wrong or wicked for a horse to work for 

 his living, — of course on a humane basis, — either on the stage 

 or on the street, than it is for a coal-carrier, a foundryman, 

 a farmer, a bookkeeper, a school teacher or a housewife to 

 do the day's work. 



The person of a wild animal is no more sacred than is that 

 of a man or woman. A sound whack for an unruly elephant, 

 bear or horse is just as helpful as it is for an unruly boy who 

 needs to be shown that order is heaven's first law. 



In the presence of the world's toiling and sweating millions, 



