Above is Alex Lacey's beast wagon and set up with exercise caging which he uses in Germany. In Italy for the Torin date, he as required by law to add the orange containers you see below to me space requirement. Of what benefit the solid walled containers were to the animals I can't even begin to guess at. Next to a concrete bunker probably one of the worst things to keep an animal in. But the Italian law's required it. Seigfried and Roy used the same container system with mesh fronts added for the show they took to Japan in the late 80's. I guess even multitude memberships in ECA doesn't get you any slack cut with moronic regulations. And trust me there, are some regulations that are actually harmful and some necessary thing's completely overlooked.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Beast wagons and staying ahead of regulation's in differing countries
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
i like this set-up. i'm impressed that someone would go this far to make the animals comfortable. i especially like the open-air look of the cages themselves. Everything seems designed for the benefit of the animals. it looks like alex thinks along the same lines you do, wade, as far as giving the animals space to exercise between shows. i know you tried to do this 30 years ago. i don't know if this is standard in europe but a set-up like this might help a lot with pr in the united states. do you think there's any chance alex will ever perform over here?
Henry,
Yes, it is a standard beast wagon. Hawthorn had a set made by the same company in Holland to use on outdoor fair dates. There in lies there usefulness, outdoors or on a tent show. They can't be maneuvered in buildings. That is why Ringling has the rolling cages, as well as the beast wagon(first one built in 1992 when I was working with GGW's tigers) in which to put the animals to take them in for the performance. Ringling also has a large tent in which to keep the beast wagon and exercise pen in the cold months. In Europe they are kept in the beast wagon year round, bedded with straw, with no additional heat. Again Henry space is not a most important consideration. Do you think the animals at Evansville are more comfortable in 8 ft. by 8ft. cages in the heated building, or outside in an uninsulated metal box with doors shut and with straw for protection from the cold?
Again in addition to the obvious human visual impact of something for the animal, we need to study other things, like their mental needs.
Alex has as good of a chance as anybody to be contracted by Ringling and work here today. 25 years ago not as much of a chance.
Wade
Henry,
If you saw C & B the last few years they had a cat act, they had a similar set up. 48ft beast wagon with slide outs all the way down the side made the cages around 8 by 12 for each of the cats. They then had a chain link pen that was 20 by 48 that bolted to the side of the wagon with a divider for the cats to go in and out at will. It was a very nice set up when it was up. I would say it was more to make them selves comfortable. The same years they had an act that included a roll over, pyramid, and fire hoop, and alot of "shoeing" cats out with squirt bottles. Sometimes you can spend alot of money on the wrong thing. I feel the "public" is as much concerned if not more with what the animals "do" and how they "do it" as where they live. Often times what they see in the ring, starts their curiosity about how the animals are taken care of. I am not knocking the guy they had, I am sure he is the nicest friendliest mostest liked guy on any show, I am just saying spending thousands of dollars on where the animal lives, and then a couple hundred on their training seems like a bad bet to me. It is also an advantage that owner operators have in that we don't have to hire whatever trainer we can get, if the owner is the trainer. The animals become less like equipment tossed from person to person. Getting back to the picture at hand, the "open air" look here is not such a bonus, and I assume why the containers were brought in. It would be rather "uncomfortable" in those "open air" cages during this winter engagement since you can't roll a beast wagon into a heated building. I will bet when we do see Alex Lacey working in the US, he will be using the same rolling cages we see ringling using now.
Damn it!!
Wade beat me to the punch on this, your comment wasn't up when I started typing.
As well as Johnny Lam had the same set up on Universoul when Taba was there. Pretty standard. And I thank Henry for asking. It has given the opportunity to speak more towards reality, and less press misrepresentation, which Henry is very versed at. LOL
Hope you are well friend,
Wade
Casey,
Those "shipping containers" which are also uninsulated and were designed for shipping "non perishable" goods across the water, and were not designed for "living breathing goods" are not adequate for any thing other then shipping containers for the purpose they were designed.
Wade
I don't know if they have been insulated, but they have definitely been modified for this use. They have louvered vents and windows, with a sliding door on side. None of that comes "standard" on a shipping container. Since we can't see the inside, I can't say it isn't heated or insulated.
Casey,
What you have described is a container made for shipping horses "temporarily", on an airplane overseas. They are not modified, they are built expressly for that purpose.
Wade
Wade - don't "knock" containers just because they are ex shipping containers.
When we retired [ha ha ] from the road and started building the zoo we converted insulated shipping containers into nighthouses for cats and primates. They were going to be temporary until we built proper buildings. They have been so effective that we now have no immediate plans to replace them - we're just growing plants around them to pretty them up a bit and that's it. We get ground temperatures here down to -11 celsius in winter and summer temps up to 40+ celsius and the insulated containers [modified with air vents, mesh fronts etc] are as good as any building would be and at a fraction of the cost.
Of course the zoo "elite" pour scorn on us but the animals are doing well so what would they know?
Steve,
I was talking about bare containers, and you mention all the modifications. They may work but they will never be as good as, forget better then, a climate controlled building with access to natural sunlight. There is a reason why horse stall's are pretty standard. They are good for horses. What is the standard for a feline stall. A elephant stall. A baboon stall, A bear stall, etc. etc. You can build a stall on the cheap with lesser quality of wood, and hardware. It will cost you more in the long run, but for the short term it is adequate. But the shape and space and general adequacy of the structure is the same, whether you are Donald Trump or using food stamps to survive.
Wade
Post a Comment