The Sackmoor zoo specialised in taxidermy instead of the expected live animals.Budget cuts had hit them harder than any other source of entertainment and conversation in the area, even the tree society hadn't been challenged to contribute more to their surroundings but as government owned property they had no say in the matter.
One by one dozen they sent their animals away to be "rehomed" while they had "counterparts" brought in to replace them as perfect replicas in cages that would never need cleaning again. It became something of a tourist attraction with the patrons trying to guess which animals were still alive and which were now stuffed.
It was easier with some, for example the meerkats who were usually seen scampering around their sandpit and now stood in clusters as snow began to cover their stiff little faces. The reptiles were a lot harder to guess, what with the heating cuts from previous years meaning they were often too cold to do much more than huddle under their meagre hotspots.
Now with so many of the creatures at Sackmoor being nothing more than sawdust and fur, the public found it amusing to climb into the cages and environmental spaces and take pictures with the stiffly posed critters. The thrill was in not quite knowing which were alive and which were just too tired and underfed to move.
Officially the zoo said "over 45 perfectly preserved replicas" but unofficially there was only one animal left alive. It was the one creature that the staff were too nervous to go anywhere near, save from feeding it and making sure that there was a steady waterflow.
Their resident saltwater crocodile, known as Guile, who measured around nineteen feet long and was the only crocodile in England to have eaten six people during its time at the zoo (of course those were all put down to staff negligence).
Guile rarely moved, even during feeding time he would grudgingly slink over to his food. As the crowds found this as dull as the actual dead animals they moved feeding time to the nights, offering midnight shows that were never popular.
Not everyone knew this about Guile though, especially with the rumours that said he'd been the first to go and that the midnight feedings were just a cover story to make it seem like the zoo was still rich enough to afford living animals. this was, of course, untrue.
This was of course not found out until the last minute for most unlucky trespassers. The crowds the next morning just assumed that the blood and body parts were there to convince them that the blatantly stuffed animal was a cold blooded killer. The zoo went along with it, calling it their little joke and leaving the corpses to rot with their families watching and rolling their eyes at the zoo's "fake" gore.
One by one dozen they sent their animals away to be "rehomed" while they had "counterparts" brought in to replace them as perfect replicas in cages that would never need cleaning again. It became something of a tourist attraction with the patrons trying to guess which animals were still alive and which were now stuffed.
It was easier with some, for example the meerkats who were usually seen scampering around their sandpit and now stood in clusters as snow began to cover their stiff little faces. The reptiles were a lot harder to guess, what with the heating cuts from previous years meaning they were often too cold to do much more than huddle under their meagre hotspots.
Now with so many of the creatures at Sackmoor being nothing more than sawdust and fur, the public found it amusing to climb into the cages and environmental spaces and take pictures with the stiffly posed critters. The thrill was in not quite knowing which were alive and which were just too tired and underfed to move.
Officially the zoo said "over 45 perfectly preserved replicas" but unofficially there was only one animal left alive. It was the one creature that the staff were too nervous to go anywhere near, save from feeding it and making sure that there was a steady waterflow.
Their resident saltwater crocodile, known as Guile, who measured around nineteen feet long and was the only crocodile in England to have eaten six people during its time at the zoo (of course those were all put down to staff negligence).
Guile rarely moved, even during feeding time he would grudgingly slink over to his food. As the crowds found this as dull as the actual dead animals they moved feeding time to the nights, offering midnight shows that were never popular.
Not everyone knew this about Guile though, especially with the rumours that said he'd been the first to go and that the midnight feedings were just a cover story to make it seem like the zoo was still rich enough to afford living animals. this was, of course, untrue.
This was of course not found out until the last minute for most unlucky trespassers. The crowds the next morning just assumed that the blood and body parts were there to convince them that the blatantly stuffed animal was a cold blooded killer. The zoo went along with it, calling it their little joke and leaving the corpses to rot with their families watching and rolling their eyes at the zoo's "fake" gore.
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