In the winter of 1988 I took the Carson and Barnes cat act to Disneyland for a ten week date arranged by Kenneth Feld for a production called "Circus Fantasy". It was set up in an amphitheater behind 'It's a Small World'. Because I only had a cage wagon w/ tunnel which could not be parked by the show area, RBBB loaned me some of these single wide cages for the date. They were absolutely awful. Small, difficult to maneuver, difficult to clean, difficult to feed- I hated them. My cats were glad to get back into their more roomy regular cage wagon when the date was over too. Other than that, it was a pretty fun date.
Well, they looked just like these, same exact style. Yes, it was the park in Anaheim. Thinking back it may have been Jan.& Feb. of '89. Not sure. I took MacDermott with me of course (I had a custom Featherlite trailer, Dermott lived in the back, my son and I lived in the front with a tack room in between). Roy was there with some Hawthorn elephants, Pam and Roger Zoppe were there with their chimp act. Bill Rivers was also there, he had animals in the street parade but not in the show.
It makes me smile to know I am the only woman on the planet to have taken her moose to Disneyland.
Were I to tell that to anyone outside this blog, I'm sure I'd be called a liar or someone would call the men in the white coats to take me away..! ha ha*** fun to know it's true
These were the most ill-designed road cages I've seen. No wild animal trainer conceived of them, far less approved them. The top, both sides, and both ends were open to the elements. Anything from above could descend through the barred tops onto the animals--hot sun, cold rain, wind, anything. Yes, I've seen the folded cover tarps, but we don't see them here. The animals are fully exposed. Recall in the GSOE winterquarters scene when Brad yelled, "Keep those cats covered when you move 'em!" There's a reason for that.
The narrow slots at the bottoms are insufficient for working a cage rake. The designer knew nothing of the size and consistency of cat manure, and trying to clean it out through these scant openings shows no animal person built these cages. Next, how does anyone fork big cuts of meat into the animals? There are no sizeable footboards for feeding, nor for boning out. One guy told me, "So what? They only get the soft mush of the zoo diet."
The doors are the type we call guillotine doors. Moving up and down in a channel, they are hoisted by a cable from the bottom of the door, through 2 pulleys. I've seen the Ringling guys along the tunnel bounce these doors off the heads, spines, and butts of the animals to move them along, actions which too easily lead to injuries. Pointing this out, I got another "So what? We're moving them, aren't we?" Correct road cage doors slide in and out horizontally with latching devices on the frame. Carefully operated, they eliminate the risk factor of vertical doors.
The zinc application left a coarse finish that became soiled from day one, when the animals paced and their natural oils rubbed off on these coated bars. The stains accumulated with no effective means of being cleaned, and the annual re-dipping done at Valmont lasted until the first big cat began to pace.
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In the winter of 1988 I took the Carson and Barnes cat act to Disneyland for a ten week date arranged by Kenneth Feld for a production called "Circus Fantasy". It was set up in an amphitheater behind 'It's a Small World'. Because I only had a cage wagon w/ tunnel which could not be parked by the show area, RBBB loaned me some of these single wide cages for the date.
They were absolutely awful. Small, difficult to maneuver, difficult to clean, difficult to feed- I hated them. My cats were glad to get back into their more roomy regular cage wagon when the date was over too.
Other than that, it was a pretty fun date.
Those were likely to have been
older cat cages Patricia as these
are Ursula's (Uschi's) bear cages
Was that the Anaheim park
Cat & Bear urine was so acidic
it would eat through the zinc
galvanizing each season & the
cages were taken to Valmont in
Tampa to be stripped & redipped
Valmont is still there in case
anyone needs galvanizing
Well, they looked just like these, same exact style.
Yes, it was the park in Anaheim. Thinking back it may have been Jan.& Feb. of '89. Not sure. I took MacDermott with me of course (I had a custom Featherlite trailer, Dermott lived in the back, my son and I lived in the front with a tack room in between). Roy was there with some Hawthorn elephants, Pam and Roger Zoppe were there with their chimp act.
Bill Rivers was also there, he had animals in the street parade but not in the show.
It makes me smile to know I am the only woman on the planet to have taken her moose to Disneyland.
Were I to tell that to anyone outside this blog, I'm sure I'd be called a liar or someone would call the men in the white coats to take me away..!
ha ha*** fun to know it's true
p.s. looks to me like a lion sneaked into one of Ursula's bear wagons
I'll have to blow it up &
have another look Patricia
The 1st 2 looked larger for
some reason which doesn't
make sense to me & that's
why I assumed hastily
A lion & a BIG bear might
make an interesting brawl
I'm a gambling man but I
don't know if I'd bet on
that outcome except for a
helluva bloody mess
I wouldn't be too worried
about being called a liar
but crazy like the rest of
us goes with the territory
(don't everybody keep a few
moose around for laughs)
These were the most ill-designed road cages I've seen. No wild animal trainer conceived of them, far less approved them. The top, both sides, and both ends were open to the elements. Anything from above could descend through the barred tops onto the animals--hot sun, cold rain, wind, anything. Yes, I've seen the folded cover tarps, but we don't see them here. The animals are fully exposed. Recall in the GSOE winterquarters scene when Brad yelled, "Keep those cats covered when you move 'em!" There's a reason for that.
The narrow slots at the bottoms are insufficient for working a cage rake. The designer knew nothing of the size and consistency of cat manure, and trying to clean it out through these scant openings shows no animal person built these cages. Next, how does anyone fork big cuts of meat into the animals? There are no sizeable footboards for feeding, nor for boning out. One guy told me, "So what? They only get the soft mush of the zoo diet."
The doors are the type we call guillotine doors. Moving up and down in a channel, they are hoisted by a cable from the bottom of the door, through 2 pulleys. I've seen the Ringling guys along the tunnel bounce these doors off the heads, spines, and butts of the animals to move them along, actions which too easily lead to injuries. Pointing this out, I got another "So what? We're moving them, aren't we?" Correct road cage doors slide in and out horizontally with latching devices on the frame. Carefully operated, they eliminate the risk factor of vertical doors.
The zinc application left a coarse finish that became soiled from day one, when the animals paced and their natural oils rubbed off on these coated bars. The stains accumulated with no effective means of being cleaned, and the annual re-dipping done at Valmont lasted until the first big cat began to pace.
This shows an unusual assortment
of cages that makes me think it
was during a maintenance rotation
I can't tell when this was from
or when these newer Clarks were
purchased to help with a date
Maybe these were props from an
illusionist that turned bears
into lions (pretty slick trick)
The 1st 2 aren't cat cages
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