Wednesday, August 26, 2009

4-Paw & Sells Africans #1


SAVE0772, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Another pretty big African male named "Mike" around the turn fo the century.
Plenty of hardware.

Posted by Buckles at 8/26/2009 05:26:00 AM

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If a bull had to be placed in a "martingale" for behavioral reasons, how would a keeper safely approach them inside a bull car to chain and un-chain them, or the adjacent animal? Were they simply chained to the animal beside them? Or, backed into place with another pair in front of them? Or Placed head first in the car, and not backed into their riding position? Hats off to the fellows that managed some of these brutes.

26 August, 2009 09:24
Anonymous said...

Neither Mike or Topsy seem to have reached a height superior to the Asiatics on the Sells and Forepaugh-Sells outfits. Were they of a sub-species that didn't reach the height of an animal like Jumbo?

Were Mike and Topsy the "Woolly Elephants" once featured on Sells?

26 August, 2009 09:28
Buckles said...

"Mike" might have simply been a chronic runaway.
However if he was dangerous in close quarters, you would load him by means of a drag chain run thru a small door in the front of the car.
To unload you give him slack on the front chain and take up the slack in back.
I have pictures of "Tusko" being unloaded in this fashion on the Barnes Show as well as some showing him being escorted to the lot with anchor elephants in front and back.
Sells Bros. had African elephants prior to Mike and Topsy which would probably include the "Woolly Elephants".

26 August, 2009 10:03
Ole Whitey said...

Buckles:

I think I'm telling this right. It all happened forty-eight years ago.

When Jack Moore got that Dorothy elephant after she'd killed a guy when Howard Suesz had her, he had a little door like you describe put in the truck to be used in loading and unloading her.

But then after she got Shipley so bad, she was given to the zoo in Tulsa and never trouped with Carson and Barnes.

I was unaware until you explained it that this technique went back to RR days.

26 August, 2009 14:48
Buckles said...

I had two half grown Africans on the Blue Show "Bonnie" and "Billy".
After marching to the cars in Port Arthur the load-out was going fine until "Billy" got half way up the ramp and suddenly backed down like a Georgia mule.
No way could I coax him in. I even tried sending "Bonnie" ahead to see if he would follow and as it turned out decided not to load and they were getting goofier by the minute.
I had someone hand down their car chains and we chained them to the possum belly of the car.
I then sent a couple of runners to the crossing where they fetched a work harness and a section of picket line chain from our trapping wagon.
Tied one end of the chain around their necks and the other end to "George's" harness who was standing on the other side of the car and one by one were drug up the ramp with considerable assiduity.
Once inside they settled down immediately and never pulled that stunt again but I kept the harness handy in the possum belly for the rest of the season just in case.

26 August, 2009 15:28
Harry Kingston said...

Buckles,
would you be so kind as to run those pictures of Tusko being unloaded by the drag chain method as some of us never ahve seen anything like that.
Thank you.
Harry

26 August, 2009 16:40
GaryHill said...

From the get go when these babies were small, I wasn't allowed to use chains or any restrain equipment. I had many arguements with the Director back then about, "what the hell are we going to do when they get bigger?" He didn't seem to care and now they have no real way to restrain them unless they use drugs.

26 August, 2009 17:53
Anonymous said...

May have caught a bad smell from one of the chemical plants nearby in Port Arthur and spooked them. Have seen it happen before with different livestock over the years.

26 August, 2009 19:37
Richard Reynolds said...

Bill was getting really tough as the years went by. Bob McDougall told me Bill almost tore down the bull shed at Venice. After that I think he was sent into retirement at Williston where he soon “went to heaven.”

27 August, 2009 13:05
Douanita said...

Does somebody has any information on the locations Mike lived and when he died?

Greetings from the Netherlands

22 April, 2010 06:32

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