Sunday, May 31, 2015

From Richard Reynolds #2



Selig Zoo Lion Hitch

This unusual photo comes from Jack Badal. He says it was taken in Los Angeles' Selig Zoo around 1920. The lions are pulling a cart with feed for other zoo critters. Note the keeper passing out food.
It would be quite shock for the visitor who came across this hitch on the public walkways

2 comments:

Bob Karczewski said...

The lions look pretty docile, but I wonder how long they actually used the lions to pull the cart.

Roger Smith said...

It was a fixture during its day. But what you see is far from a first. Cleopatra's lion trainers had them in harness pulling chariots. A few hundred years later, Louis Roth had a team pulling a vegetable wagon in Thousand Oaks.