The bombing toll on domestic pets and farm animals is never spoken of, but it was a slaughter of momentous proportion. Horses burned alive at various stud farms, cattle were blown into pieces, sheep literally cooked in the fields and thousands of pets were lost, lamed, blinded, orphaned and even eaten out of desperation. Whole species of birds and butterflies vanished. For zoos it was hellish. Famous animal trainer, Otto Sailer-Jackson ran the Dresden Zoo watched in horror as a wave of bombing set the zoo ablaze.
The zoo in Munich was likewise attacked and nearly destroyed. Adji, the first African elephant born in the Munich zoo, died under American bombing in the year 1943 along with several other animals. The Hamm zoo was another victim in 1944. On November 2, 1944, the Düsseldorf zoo, damaged during previous attacks, was left with hardly a wall standing and over 200 bomb craters.
The very first bomb that the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War Two killed the only elephant left in the beautiful, world famous Berlin Zoo. On November 26-27, 1943, British Blockbuster bombs freed a number of wild animals from Berlin’s zoo and several large and potentially dangerous animals.
For more wild facts about animal bombings, go to exulanten.com.