Tag: cheetahs

The great Romford and Harringay cheetah races! – Almost History

After living not that far from one of these dog tracks for over 10 years, I just now found out that, yes indeed, some promoters decided this was a great plan!

The industry faced a similar crunch in the 1930s, when the enthusiasm for going to the dogs was, in fact, going to the dogs. Promoters were faced with a glut of venues, including some recent purpose built stadia, and not enough punters to fill them. Novel entertainments were introduced including motocross, speedway, stock car racing and amateur athletics.

As exciting as these attractions were, surely none could compare with the spectacle unleashed on Londoners on 11 December 1937. It was a Saturday night and Romford Stadium was packed. It had rained heavily days running up to the event, making the going particularly heavy. The race card featured three additional races and there was palpable excitement in the air. The promoters had blended the best of greyhound racing, the zoo and the circus to develop the cheetah races.

Surely the speed, athletic grace and sheer exotic danger of the racing cheetahs would make this a winning proposition. The promoters had high hopes; they had invested heavily in the scheme and would stage races at both Romford and Harringay.

Spoiler: That worked out about as well as you might expect. Well worth a read for some of the details.

The Argus, reporting all the way from Melbourne, Australia, noted that: “Unlike the greyhound, a cheetah is attracted solely by the bait and cares nothing for racing glory”, before ruefully concluding that: “may be, however, that the racing spirit in the 12 cheetahs now in England has not yet been fully developed.”

After a few sessions, the spectacle of seeing big cats in the arena wore off and the spectators were left watching bored cheetahs wander around and even curl up for a nap. Whether cheetah racing stopped because it was no longer as interesting, because of pressure from rival greyhound stadia or complaints from locals afraid of the big cats in their backyard, it didn’t last beyond its first season.

Romford’s race promoter had got his publicity and big crowds and cheetah racing would be consigned to become one of the curios of sporting history. It is an arresting enough story to be dug out by local history enthusiasts and appear in occasional newspaper columns.

A little more info: Cheetah v Greyhound: Romford Dogs.

The animals were kept in the kennels at Romford, much to the consternation of people living nearby. Their handler, an Australian women, Ruby Henderson, tried to calm people by saying to the press “they (the cheetahs) are like overgrown cats”. She then added, in case the punters got too close, ‘ but while a cat has a lick like a small nutmeg grater, cheetahs have a lick like a barbed wire fence”

(Note: I am NOT endorsing greyhound racing, with or without big cats involved. Just sharing this for the local history curiosity factor.)

The great Romford and Harringay cheetah races! – Almost History

madlori:

tastefullyoffensive:

by Xergion

This is true! The zoo where I volunteer (the illustrious Columbus Zoo & Aquarium) was one of the pioneers of this program.

Our zoo is known for raising cheetah cubs. Cheetahs have a terrible infant mortality rate and cubs are often rejected, so we get a lot of cubs to raise from all over the country (other zoos and sanctuaries, mostly).

The cubs are placed with a puppy friend when they are wee and small, so they grow up together like littermates. They play together, wrestle, and the dogs (yellow Labs) are so calm, friendly and well-socialized that the cheetahs take behavioral cues from them. When they meet new people, or go into new situations (which they often do, as ambassador animals for cheetah conservation), they check out if their dog friend is feeling chill – which he is – and then they know it’s okay for them to be chill, too.

Basically the dog is a service animal for them.

The cats need their dog friends less and less as they get older and more comfortable, but they still often hang out as grownups.

Our zoo does cheetah runs, where the cheetahs get to chase a lure and show off their speed. Often they’ll have one of the cheetahs run (we have like twelve cheetah), and then they’ll have one of the dogs do the run to show how much faster the cats are. People get a kick out of that. The dogs…let’s just say they try their best.

Source: tastefullyoffensive