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The worldwide food shortage also affected the animal market. In some places, monkeys were being eaten instead of exported. Large animals could not be kept in captivity, awaiting U.S. dealers, or shipped, because there was not enough food to feed them. Only pythons (worth $5 to $10 a foot in the U.S.) were relatively unaffected. They are often caught after they have stolen and gorged a whole sheep or goat. The lucky dealer could ship a python to the U.S. and sell it without ever having to feed it.
Like most other businessmen, animal dealers had been squeezed by costs that rose faster than retail prices. And still zoos thought that they were being overcharged. Not long ago Chicago's Brookfield Zoo reluctantly agreed to pay $4,000 each for three giraffes (prewar price: $1,700 and up). Growled Brookfield's director: "OPA hasn't anything to say about giraffes."
* In ancient times a hollow rhino horn was supposed to be a poisonproof cup, would supposedly crack, if poison were poured into it. Nonbeliever Charles II disproved this.