Gay's Lion Farm--Beloved Family Attraction in California

Things change, they have to and it is not always for the worse. When the first Animal Welfare society was created in England by a concerned member of Parliament, it was in response to a down horse being whipped in a attempt to get it back on its feet. He wasn't saying don't use horses to pull the cart, or don't encourage the horse to go ahead. He was saying you drove it so hard it collapsed. Let it rest for a half hour and it will be good to go. In essence "don't beat it until it fall's, and then beat it for falling" There is a world of difference between animal welfare and animal activism. This famous "lion farm" is classic of the need for change and doing thing different. I will wager anything, theses people "loved" their lions, and they were "like children to us", or "they are our family". How long has the press and public been hearing that nonsense?
To use the breeding of certain animals as a shining example of saving an endangered species, or good husbandry practices is ridiculous. Some species will breed like rabbits in the most wretched conditions. Some are notoriously difficult, such as gorillas and elephants. They became a little easier to breed once regulations were passed prohibiting the capture and importation of offspring, and adults. Saving an endangered species for posterity? Or a necessity to get the product you needed. I don't think why is as important, as the fact that it is being done.
Pictures are wonderful, they can hid a lot or they can show a lot. It is dependent on what you want to see. Let's read some press from the Gay's lion farm, then decided if it needed to be regulated/changed.


In [[September]] [[1928]], while the Gays were traveling in Europe, a trainer failed to close a runway while lions Nigger, Ike and Short-Tail were being moved between cages. Nigger made a dash for freedom, and slashed the arm of farm manager [[John Rounan]] at the moment Rounan fired a shot at the animal; the wound required 100 stitches, and Rounan later died. Trainer [[Joe Hoffman]] took off after Nigger and killed him with a bullet in the brain. Short-Tail walked into an open cage, and Hoffman was able to lock him in. But Ike got shot in the leg and ran around the farm in a rage, menacing a cow, a cage full of baby lions and arriving police officers. Ike finally died in a hail of bullets from many guns.


At its high point, there were more than 200 adult lions living at the Farm. The farm closed in December 1942, when wartime rationing made it impossible to get the ton of horse meat required daily for the cats, and the lions were loaned to zoos around the country. But by the time the war ended, Charles Gay was too ill to reclaim his cats.