Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

The Animal Gazer

to the tables of the Café de l ’Union, where the businessmen played dominoes, or make it as far as the banks of the Schelda to drink from its waters. The zoo adopted of its own accord emergency measures for the most dangerous animals: the smal l cats were caged in the cel lars of the Feestpaleis— the biggest bui lding of the complex—whi le the larger ones were moved to the armored cages normal ly used for transportation. The bears instead were too cumbersome, so no better expedient was found than to ki l l them immediately by gunshot. The escape of the animals was not the only problem. Maybe they wanted to prevent the enemy from seizing the most prized animals, property of the most beauti ful zoo in Europe, and transferring them to Germany as war booty. The fact remains that the provincial governor, Gaston van de Werve et de Schi lde, rati f ied the order: al l the animals of the zoo had to be destroyed, without further delay. “Yesterday they communicated to me the resolution of the municipal counci l ,” wrote the director to Bugatti , “granting me forty-eight hours to prepare everything. At f ive o’clock tomorrow morning I have to open the gates of the zoo to a battal ion of soldiers who wi l l handle the appal l ing business.”

AT FIRST THEY had thought of assigning the “appal l ing business” to the Garde Civique, then

15