Hunting was one of my favourite pastimes when I was growing up. I loved animals yet I hunted them for food. Let me clarify the irony. I like domestic animals. Until I relocated to Abuja a little over a decade ago, dogs were part of my household. As a kid, I liked puppies because of their innocence and playfulness. I used to enjoy gallivanting with them. But I hate cats. We were made to believe that felines were agents of evil folks like witches. On the contrary, we were told, dogs cannot be on the same page with agents of darkness or people harbouring evil. If you have a dog that is not friendly with people around you, it means you should be careful. Am I being superstitious?
I had a dog in Jos which so hated a family friend that the mere sound of his motorcycle from a distance of more than 100 metres away would send it into a hysteria. One thousand and one motorbikes might pass by our neighbourhood with the normal sounds. But as soon as the dog picked out the sound of our friend’s bike approaching our house, it would begin to bark louder, irascibly and ceaselessly.
At a point, we began to wonder the kind of aura our friend had that the dog could not accommodate and as such marked him out as an unwanted visitor to the house. Curiously, he was the only visitor that the dog had an aversion to.
One afternoon, we had to battle to calm the dog down so that our friend could be allowed into the compound. It was such an embarrassment to him. I never knew that dogs too had football sense until that afternoon. While trying to corner and usher it into its kernel, it would sell a dummy in order to get across to its target. It was an embarrassing situation our friend found himself in. We were also embarrassed.
Years earlier, I had a dog with the same mentality. There was a houseboy I engaged and the dog decided against the hiring. Usually, when a dog sights a visitor while the owner is present, there should be no trouble. But this particular dog was different. So, we had to be locking up the dog or shove it out of our midst whenever the houseboy was around. One day, the dog ignored my command and chose to bite the young man.
The next day, I told a colleague, a lover of 404, a euphemism for dog meat, to come and carry the defiant animal away and do whatever he liked with it. He came in a friend’s car, heaved the animal into the booth and drove away across the city of Jos. Those who are familiar with the geography of Jos would appreciate the distance between Farin Gada and the Abattoir settlement, which is about 30 minutes’ drive. Less than 24 hours after, I was shocked to see the dog in front of my house, wagging its tail, as if to say: ‘Ntoor, I am back!’
I went and met my colleague and asked him why he brought the dog back. He told me he could not understand how the dog escaped. Later in the day, he came back with his soldier friend. The friend executed the dog and the cadaver was loaded into the booth.
Frowners at cruelty against animals would have protested the way I got rid of the dog. It reminded me of an encounter I had with some members of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals many years ago in Jos. I was on a long vacation and had to run an errand for my elder sister. On returning home with two hefty fowls bought from the old central market where the burnt Jos Ultra Modern Main Market is presently situated, two men sighted me around the Post Office and shouted: “Hey you boy, it is an offence to swing those chickens upside down”, and ordered me to carry the fowls properly. I froze on my tracks. I was amused and angry at the same time. Then, I asked them: “What is your business with the way I am carrying the chickens that are heading for the gallows? You could as well ask me not to slaughter the chickens!” They were not amused by my response, saying that I would have been arrested but for my age. I obeyed their order and tucked the birds under my armpits. But as soon as I thinned out of their sight, I returned to the status quo, occasionally glancing over my shoulders.
Last week, the residents of the ancient City of Kano went into a panic mode when the news broke out that a lion had escaped from the Kano Zoo. A similar escape was recorded in Jos about two years ago when a lion fled the Jos Wildlife Park. Inhabitants of Miango Road where the Park is located scampered to safety. While the residents of the area panicked and prayed that the king of the jungle would be captured or hunted down before it could hunt down humans for food, animal conservationists were quick to warn against killing the man-eater.
Eventually, the lion of Jos was captured before it could harm or kill anyone. In the case of Kano, the 15-year-old king of the jungle had escaped from its cage on Saturday ostensibly due to the carelessness of the keeper(s). After a day or so without any news of its capture, the state Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, ordered that the stray king, valued at N4m, be executed on sight before it could harm or consume anyone. No one could fault Ganduje for the order. There is only one governor in Kano state. Any other ruler (of the jungle) like the escapee roaming outside its confinement is a usurper!
Police snipers had already been placed on the red alert to shoot the expensive king on sight if efforts to arrest or tranquilise it failed. However, barely 48 hours after its escape, the king (ostensibly aware of the shoot-on-sight order) sauntered back into its domain. It was reported that the lion had feasted on four goats and two ostriches while combing the bushes at the zoo.
Tragedies of escapee wild animals preying on humans are common in many parts of the world. I have never fancied going to the zoos or wildlife parks just to watch dangerous animals live. I am always sceptical that something might go wrong. Some careless gatekeepers can bring harm to visitors and even themselves. There are instances where lions have attacked and even killed attendants in zoos and parks. A lion once attacked and devoured a careless attendant in the zoo run by the University of Ibadan.
I often fear for animal lovers that harbour all manner of creatures as pets. Such pets include lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, crocodiles and even pythons. You may take predators out of the wild and tame them but can you take the killer instinct out of them? Many wild animals have turned on their owners or families and made meals of them!
As it turned out, the Kano folks had a happy ending… the escapee king returned to its domain without harming or killing any humans. The import of the scary saga is that someone in the zoo failed in his duties. It is obvious that someone had compromised the king’s feeding regime. In other words, the meal attendant must have been eating the lion’s share! So, when it had the opportunity of getting out of its confinement and feasting on the four goats and two ostriches, it, on its own, strolled back to the cage bellyful and satisfied. The keeper, who was careless, enabling the beast to gain temporary freedom, should thank his Creator. He would have been taken for breakfast, lunch or dinner if the predator had sighted him first. I tell you.
All told, methinks Governor Ganduje should investigate not only the circumstances surrounding the king’s escape but also its feeding pattern. It is obvious that underfeeding led the lion into the self-help effort when it had the opportunity to escape. A repeat of this flight might spell death for innocent Kano folks.
