EDITORIAL COMMENT 
251 
million people annually visit the New York Zoological Park and the National 
Zoo in Washington. A total attendance of 2,229,605 was recorded for the year 
ending June 30, 1920, at the latter establishment. This does not necessarily 
imply that there are that many ‘‘barbarians” among the people of Washington 
or the visiting tourists, for some of the enthusiasts visited the zoo at least once 
a week during the year; some of the most interested went oftener. 
The modern zoological garden is conducted on a much higher plane than was 
the ancient animal collection. There have undeniably been cruelties to animals 
in menageries in times past. Those familiar with our leading gardens nowadays 
know how much expert care is given the animals, how contented and happy 
most of them are, and how much longer many species live in captivity than in a 
wild state. Most wild animals resist capture, it is true, but so does a colt or a 
domestic pig. Once safely in the modern zoological garden almost any wild 
creature rapidly becomes a contented pet. Kindness and consideration for his 
charges is one of the first essential qualifications required of the keeper, and 
no brutal or inhuman act is tolerated. In the first place, it does not pay; animals 
are expensive, and every care must be taken to insure that contentment neces- 
sary to good health and a long survival. The management now is most certain 
to be made up of animal lovers and protectionists, men who are naturally kind to 
animals, and constantly working for their preservation and good. Improved 
buildings, cages, and paddocks are all the time being devised; improved methods 
of care are constantly being studied; any plan, in short, that tends to better 
conditions for the comfort and health of the animals is eagerly adopted as soon 
as its merits are proved. 
The writer does not particularly care for trained animal shows, and does not 
know a great deal about methods used in teaching wild animals to perform, but 
he has had some acquaintance with trainers, and in so far as his experience goes 
has never seen or heard of, first hand, the “diabolical cruelty” so often credited 
to the profession. There may be a difference of opinion, of course, as to just 
what constitutes “diabolical cruelty,” but the few professional animal trainers 
personally known to him have been kindly, big hearted men, with an intense love 
for animals; men who would be decidedly and vigorously quick to resent any 
act of cruelty, torture, or even annoyance to their pets. Isolated cases of 
cruelty to animals in zoos and menageries today are not representative of condi- 
tions in general. The zoo as a public institution should not be condemned 
because of such cases. The National Humane Review records many cases of 
extreme brutality and crime to children by acts of human monsters, but no one 
advocates the abolishment of the privilege of rearing children because of these 
unnatural, isolated cases. 
Zoological parks and exhibitions of living animals will probably always be with 
us; the idea is growing in popularity all the time, and becomes more impor- 
tant as the natural ranges of wild creatures become restricted. Conspicuous 
species and groups of animals are being hunted and trapped from the face of the 
earth, or crowded out of existence by man’s use of the land, and many forms 
will soon survive only in park-reared examples. Fortunate indeed may be the 
fare of the family of animals that is safely settled in a comfortable park pad- 
dock, while their kind in a wild state are being hunted to actual extermination. 
