Word: keeper
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Police identified the woman as Bertha Walt, a pretty young Zurich office worker. The night before she had carried some bread away from the dinner table, and apparently went to the zoo to feed Chang. There was a keeper's door in the wall at the back of the elephant pit through which she could have entered. To a friend she had said: "I often find animals kinder than people...
Eleven years ago, Chang was bundled into the Zurich zoo's elephant pit, a fat, ludicrous baby only ten months old. He had been bought as the future mate for Mandjullah, an older female. Rapidly he became the zoo's star attraction and the pride of his keeper, Hans Rietmann. When Mandjullah took the kids for a ride on her back, Chang trundled awkwardly behind, amiably accepting peanuts. Sometimes he would even snuggle his trunk into a pocket to pluck out a piece of candy...
Chang had some elephantine whims. He showered his audience with water and occasionally picked up his empty tub and flung that, too. His keeper and his fans laughed and decided that Chang was an elephant with imagination...
...management wanted to kill Chang, but Keeper Rietmann pleaded for mercy. Chang was spared. Until two weeks ago, he gave no more trouble. Then suddenly he became aggressive, even attacking Mandjullah. Again Hans Rietmann defended the animal. Chang, he said, was entering his bullhood and would be upset for a while. The chains that tied Chang during the night were reinforced; keepers were forbidden to enter the pit alone...
...television seemed to be discouraging a certain type of trespasser on the great male sanctuary. Said one tavern keeper: "Funny thing, hustlers don't play these bars with television much, not until after the program is over for the night. Too much conflict of interest...