Inside The "Freak Animal" Business

Inside The Freak Animal Business FARM HOME Miscellaneous Contributing editor Lorn Manthey reports that he had an interesting conversation recently with a fellow who makes a living buying and selling “freak animals” such as 2-headed calves oddly colored pigs crazy-looking reptiles and so on “For more than 50 years I ran an animal freak show at fairs across the country and made a darn good living doing it ” says Marv Lyngen who now lives in Schertz Texas “We had a large collection of unusual animals - such as a pigeon that had all black feathers on one side and all white feathers on the opposite side People love to see them ” Although many of his exhibits were dead animals or birds sealed in cases he also had several live animals “One of our most popular exhibits was a rabbit without any ears We kept it in a nice clean cage and the kids would really love to see it hop around just like a normal rabbit ” says Lyngen Lyngen was born into the carnival business and enjoyed working with people and exhibits so much that he kept doing it his whole life “When I was young I always had a soft heart for animals and still do today Even those animals born with deformities deserve a chance to live ” Lyngen told of his father once caring for a perfectly normal baby goat except it was born without legs “We nursed that little thing along and it did just fine ” Lyngen says his show animals lifed a charmed life “We bathed them every day kept their pens clean and made sure they slept on clean pine shavings I always provided medical treatment if they needed it ” Although Lyngen doesn’t travel the fair circuit any more he still acquires abnormal animals from farms and ranches He sells some to Ripleys and donates others to veterinary schools Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Marv Lyngen Freak Enterprises 18905 Interstate 35 North No 228 Schertz Texas 78154 ph 210 214-2810

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