NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 67 



It seems that in New York City there are a few human 

 minds so dense as to be impenetrable by facts and reason. It is 

 useless to try to inform such minds, on any subject, even that a 

 deadly dangerous elephant who is free, and an unarmed man 

 cannot occupy the same stall at the same time without a tragedy. 

 Unless the elephant is partially restrained from killing the man. 

 murder will be done. The mere fact that an elephant cannot be 

 turned out of doors in winter — from four to six times each day 

 — in order that his housework may be done, does not phase Gun- 

 da's letter-writing champions, in the least. 



During last June, July and August, Gunda was exceedingly 

 wicked and dangerous. His annual period of sexual excitement 

 was very severe and long continued. When it ended, and he had 

 quieted down, we were able to take off his rear leg-chain, and 

 slip the ring of his (seven-foot) front chain over a long steel 

 cable, which enabled him to travel at will between the front of 

 his cage and the rear of his corral. Even with that liberty, 

 however, he spent by far the greater portion of his time stand- 

 ing quietly in his stall indoors, munching hay and watching the 

 crowds of visitors! Today he enjoys life much more than the 

 average New Yorker; because all his wants are supplied, he has 

 plenty of company, and no one troubles him. 



Whenever Gunda begins seriously to suffer from any phase 

 of his confinement, the Director of the Park will be the first 

 person to recognize it, and to propose to the Executive Commit- 

 tee of the Zoological Society that he shall be destroyed. 



There is one other point about the Gunda unpleasantness 

 that continually comes into view. Of all the many persons who 

 have attacked us most unjustly regarding the elephant, not one 

 person (so far as I can recall) ever has expressed the slightest 

 sympathy for Gunda's keepers, or regret that Keeper Thuman 

 spent four months in bed recovering from the two terrible 

 wounds that nearly cost him his life! The sympathy is all for 

 the elephant, whose only grief is that he cannot get a chance to 

 finish Thuman! 



It is the legitimate business, and also the imperative duty, 

 of the managers of every zoological park or garden worthy of 

 the name to keep and to exhibit a certain number of dangerous 

 animals. In the care of such animals, the directors of such in- 

 stitutions have duties to the animals, to the public, and to the 

 keepers of dangerous animals, none of which may be ignored. 



