Central Park Zoo Escape

1. In 1874, the New York Herald newspaper sent the residents of New York City into a panic. With the permission of his editor, journalist Joseph Clarke wrote a dramatic story about how the animals of the Central Park Zoo had escaped from their cages and were bolting through the city. The story reported that 27 people had already been killed and 200 more injured by the angry and confused animals. The police and national guard were desperately trying to round up the animals.
2. The story went on to warn that a lion had roared in on a church service and a rhinoceros had been trapped in a sewer. Many other animals were unaccounted for, according to the story, and residents should beware.
3. At the very end of the alarming article was the following note: “The entire story given above is a pure fabrication.” But not many people read to the end of the story, and panic spread throughout the city. Even the police were fooled by the article, and they were trying to both control the hysterical crowds and also prepare to battle the escaped animals.
4. No animals had actually escaped, of course, as it turned out that the writer had written the story to draw attention to what he felt were dangerous conditions at the zoo. Although the reporter and his editor were shocked at the widespread panic the story had caused, they did not apologize. In the next day’s issue of the New York Herald, they printed a short statement that the conditions at the Central Park Zoo should be improved before a disaster occurred.

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