Monsieur Pernelet And His Animal Act

In a simpler age, where international travel was restricted to the armed forces, diplomats, government officials, and the upper strata of society ....

Monsieur Pernelet And His Crocodile Pets

 ..... then exotic amusements were extremely popular in the UK, and indeed in Europe and the USA.

So, snake charmers, wild west shows, circuses with wild animals and other novelty acts were common ....  but every now and then, an act would appear that really got peoples attention. Such was the case with Monsieur Auguste Pernelet and his tame crocodiles, who toured Europe successfully for nearly a decade up until 1910. 

He had kept them as pets, after travelling across French Colonial Africa and Anglo-Egypt and seeing Nile crocodiles. He had then taken a number home and trained them, and at one point had a team of 46 crocodiles of various ages and sizes, after he had successfully bred them. The training took a period of ten years, and eventually a French showman heard of this, and after seeing Monsieur Pernelet perform with them, he offered him almost the almost impossible to refuse amount of £300 to show them to a paying audience.

Monsieur Pernelet And His Crocodiles

He told the press that the youngest crocodiles in the act were 12 years old, while the oldest, a female, was "over 300 summers," .... it was this venerable creature that he had trained to let him ride on its back. He fed them on beef as they couldn't eat their native food, which he said was fish and the native locals. He described the stage act as being "Two pennyworth of courage, four pennyworth of patience, and the same amount of love for the animals - I am absurdly fond of my crocodiles you know. That makes ten pennyworth of the whole lot. A French Franc!"

The Taming Of Crocodiles

Believe it or not, this really was a popular stage act, possibly as the chances of it going spectacularly wrong at any moment made it a tense affair for many in the audience. He actually fed them with meat (for instance a mutton chop), held in his teeth, or from his hands like puppies, and only lost 3 or 4 fingers (and nothing from his face), in performances of the stage act across Europe. He said that he lost one of his fingers while performing in Algiers, when in what was "the most thrilling experience I ever had," he was attacked by half a dozen of his biggest crocodiles, while "showing the visitors how clever we can be when we try." 

One large crocodile gripped his finger, and while he was trying to prise its jaws open, another gripped his trousers and leg and started twisting, while the others thrashed all over him in the tank. He was only rescued when "a plucky gentleman in the front row of the stalls, jumped on to the stage and pulled me to safety."  He spent six months in hospital, and was left with teeth scars across much of his body as a permanent reminder of that incident .... but he continued to perform with the animals, and his only protection was some thick naval sea boots to stop his pets ripping off his legs or feet. 

1902 Circus Busch Poster - Hand Feeding

The act was only ended after a fire at a stage in Belgium, which killed two of his beloved crocodiles in 1910. It is not known what he did after that, or what happened to his crocodiles