76 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
" It is announced that the importation of wild 
animals into this country has been prohibited 
for the term of the war. It is sincerely to be 
wished that so odious a traffic may never be 
resumed. 
" 'The Wild Animal Industry' ! Such is the 
term used to express, not the diligence with which 
many wild animals (such as beavers) live their 
own lives, but the misdirected energy of human 
beings in capturing and caging them ! This trade 
of kidnapping wild animals, and of carrying them 
into slavery for purposes of exhibition, is well 
described in Miss Velvin's book. 
"The 'industry' in question is a veritable 
slave trade. Miss Velvin dwells again and again 
on the great dangers, labours, expenses, and dis- 
appointments to which the slave hunters are 
liable. We do not doubt it. What we doubt is 
the sense and humanity of those persons who, by 
patronising such exhibitions, make such a trade 
possible. 'Do we reflect,' asks the authoress, 
'on the time spent in procuring each individual 
animal? The terrible dangers of the jungle; 
the weary marches over land and desert; the 
anxious and monotonous journeys over high seas.; 
the trials and difficulties of the railways; the con- 
stant thought and care necessary to keep' the 
animals alive. . . It is true that few of us 
reflect on these things. But it is also' true that 
if many of us did reflect on them — and what is 
more to the point, on the sufferings of the cap- 
tives themselves. — it would be impossible to carr)' 
on such an industry in a civilised age. 
"There are two phases in the process of trans- 
forming a free wild animal into an exhibition 
specimen, viz., the capture and the transporta- 
tion. Cruelty is unavoidable in both of them. 
To capture the cubs by killing the parents is the 
method frequently followed in the case of the 
more powerful and dangerous animals. In about 
nineteen cases out of every twenty the animals 
caught full-grown in a wild state are so difficult 
to settle down in captivity and so irreconcilable 
that they are worse than useless. Yet many are 
so caught; and when, on the other hand, the 
parents are killed in order to kidnap the cubs 
there result many harrowing scenes. As Miss 
Velvin puts it : 'Occasionally some very pathetic 
and distressing incidents are witnessed. ' 
" But it is in the transportation that the worst 
sufferings ensue; nor is that surprising in view of 
the conditions in which the business has to be 
done. 'In one collection alone,' we are told, 
'there were fifty-odd hyaenas and jackals. Then 
there were about sixteen lions and lionesses, 
twenty antelopes, seventeen baboons, eight leo- 
pards, five cheetahs, seven lynxes . . . and about 
thirty of the smaller carnivorous animals. ' No 
wonder that the losses are terrible before the 
destination is reached. 
"A great many .animals, especially young- 
ones, die soon after they are caught. Some of 
them go into frenzies of rage and excitement, and 
practically kill themselves. Others refuse to eat, 
fret and mope, and simply pine away." 
Mr. J. D. Hamlyn, the well-known animal 
dealer, who in peace time imported and sold hun- 
dreds of wild animals, naturally did not agree 
with Mr. Galsworthy. He said : 
" I don't know this Mr. Galsworthy or how 
much he knows about wild animals, but as a man 
who has dealt in wild animals for forty-five years 
I ought, to know something about the matter. 
" I have supplied menageries and 'zoos' 
throughout the country, as well as private collec- 
tions, with all varieties of birds and beasts, and I 
say that animals always have been and always will 
be kept in captivity. 
"The only animals I bring into the country 
now are for Government use, for experiments 
which are necessary; but after the war the busi- 
ness of importing animals will go. on exactly as 
it did before. 
" In the first place, too much capital is at stake 
— too much money has been expended to give up 
the trade altogether. Moreover the animals and 
birds are necessary, not only to interest people, 
but for purposes of study and experiment. 
"Of course, I don't think animalsi suffer in 
captivity. Why, they're far better fed and 
looked after than if they were running wild. My 
tigers, captured in India and Sumatra, were put 
at once in roomy cages, fed and watered regularly. 
You can't tell me they suffered. I know better. 
" Another thing. Performing animals are not 
ill-treated. If they were their trainers would not 
get any results. 
"We are always having people write these 
appeals for the wild animals, and they are always 
people who don't know the animals." 
"Weekly Dispatch," 6th Jan., 1918. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
THAT the arrivals have been some few Budge- 
rigars, a few Dog-faced Baboons, and Grey 
Parrots. The Import Trade is practically dead. 
THAT the demand for Guinea Pigs, Mice, Rats, 
Ferrets, and Monkeys still continue. Foreign 
Birds also command high prices. 
THAT six Giraffes haA'e arrived from the Upper 
Soudan District at the Zoological Gardens, 
Giza, Egvpt. 
JOHN D. HAMLYN. 
Priutedby W. ]. Hasted 
Son (T.U.), 306, Mile End Road, E. 1. 
Street, London Docks, E. 1. 
and Published by J. D. Hamlyn, 221, St. George's 
