This story started me thinking about something that had never before occurred to me. During the first and second world wars, what happened to all the animals? During the blitz many bombed out homes would also have been home to family pets, particularly dogs and cats. Many will have been killed, along with their owners, others that survived, would have been terrified and would probably have run away and become homeless. Some were more fortunate, like Sheila, the elephant pictured in our photograph. Sheila had arrived at Belfast zoo in the late 1930s and lived until the early 1960s. During the 1941 blitz on Belfast, Sheila was moved out of the zoo for safety reasons. She was sheltered by a mystery woman who kept the elephant calf in her back garden. "The woman is something of a zoo legend," said manager Joy Bond, adding: "The pictures have been here a long time but nobody had been able to identify her." The woman dubbed the 'elephant angel' is thought to be one of the two women pictured above. Now the zoo are issuing the old black and white photographs in the hope that someone might be able to identify her. Commenting on Sheila's thirty year stay at the zoo, Mark Challis, zoo chief, said "If it wasn't for the care of this lady, that may not have been the case." To date, several people had called the zoo saying they could have been the woman's neighbours. During the war the government ordered the killing of 33 animals including one hyena, six wolves, one puma, one tiger, one black bear, two polar bears and one lynx, due to fears they could escape during air raids, the zoo said.Thursday, 26 March 2009
The Elephant Angel
This story started me thinking about something that had never before occurred to me. During the first and second world wars, what happened to all the animals? During the blitz many bombed out homes would also have been home to family pets, particularly dogs and cats. Many will have been killed, along with their owners, others that survived, would have been terrified and would probably have run away and become homeless. Some were more fortunate, like Sheila, the elephant pictured in our photograph. Sheila had arrived at Belfast zoo in the late 1930s and lived until the early 1960s. During the 1941 blitz on Belfast, Sheila was moved out of the zoo for safety reasons. She was sheltered by a mystery woman who kept the elephant calf in her back garden. "The woman is something of a zoo legend," said manager Joy Bond, adding: "The pictures have been here a long time but nobody had been able to identify her." The woman dubbed the 'elephant angel' is thought to be one of the two women pictured above. Now the zoo are issuing the old black and white photographs in the hope that someone might be able to identify her. Commenting on Sheila's thirty year stay at the zoo, Mark Challis, zoo chief, said "If it wasn't for the care of this lady, that may not have been the case." To date, several people had called the zoo saying they could have been the woman's neighbours. During the war the government ordered the killing of 33 animals including one hyena, six wolves, one puma, one tiger, one black bear, two polar bears and one lynx, due to fears they could escape during air raids, the zoo said.
