And so the dairy owners were very aware of the liabilities and concern, and there were gassed when they saw carloads of kids climbing out and pulling grass and weeds, and feeding it to the animals, and throwing lighted cigars in at the, now very adult, very large chimpanzees that were housed in sort of a converted garage situation, or converted cow shed, it really was, with chain link and then heavy bars. And so we had realized these animals, when I’d gone to San Diego, I mean to University of Hawaii, I was aware of the animals that were there and I’d go inspect them. And as a matter of fact, when my wife and I talked to Mrs. Benchley on our first visit there in ’46, back to see her, we mentioned, “Hey, not only, Mrs. Benchley, is the zoo pretty well gone, there’s this great bunch of fine animals that are owned by the dairy, which the rumor is that the dairy owner is gonna sell out, and maybe they could be in nucleus if the new owner, he could be persuaded to offer them to the city as sort of a nucleus to rebuild the zoo.” So we had not only the interest in our small group, but we had a specific goal of an event that could occur. And we were delighted when the new owners purchased, after they just purchased the dairy, they immediately saw they didn’t want the liability of these animals, so they did offer them to the city. And the rumor is that the PR guy that was employed by the dairy said, “Hey, here’s what I’d suggest to the dairy new owners. Offer them to the city, they had a zoo before, the elephant killed the keeper back in the middle of the depression. People are down on the zoo, the humane society is down on the zoo. They urged the zoo at that time to get rid of the mammals, stick to birds and just go through the gesture of offering these animals to the city and the city will turn them down or either take them or turn them down.
