Animals have featured in the lives and cultures of the people of
Merseyside since the dawn of time, and in so many ways. Beastly
Merseyside describes this, and tells wonderful stories about these
animals, and about the roles they have played. Horses have carried us
and our weaponry into battle for millennia, right up to the wars of the
twentieth century. They have ploughed our fields, carried our goods, and
pulled our carts, wagons, carriages, stagecoaches, canal barges, buses,
trams, and ambulances. We have been racing horses on Merseyside for
centuries. We have hunted animals for food, from rabbits and ducks to
those great leviathans of the sea, the whales. Liverpool's whaling fleet
was once one of the most important in Britain. We have also hunted, and
in some cases still hunt, animals simply for 'sport'. This has included
dog-fighting, cockfighting, bear and bull baiting, as well as fox
hunting, hare coursing, and shooting. Animals have entertained us on the
streets, in the days of dancing bears and organ grinders' monkeys; in
circuses; and in the very many zoos we have had on Merseyside, again
over many centuries. Animals have also rescued us, provided comfort to
us, and helped us to see and hear. In Beastly Merseyside, popular local
historian Ken Pye tells tales about the likes of Mickey the Chimp,
Liverpool's own 'King Kong'; the execution of Rajah the Elephant; Pongo
the Man Monkey; the amazing Hale Duck Decoy; the 'Lion in the
Wheelbarrow'; the nineteenth-century Knowsley Great Aviary and the
modern safari park; and why and how the Liver Bird became the emblem of
Liverpool. Full of well-researched, informative, and entertaining facts,
this book really shows just how vital a role animals of all kinds have
played, and continue to play, in our lives and communities.
