Animals Primped and Pampered for County Fair Roles

Rem looked a little displeased.

The two humans already had spent 1 1/2 hours trimming his wool, meticulously snipping away the gray and matted clumps that spotted his thick, natural-colored coat. And they still missed a spot on his back end.

Rem is spoiled by his hairdressers, and rightly so: He’s a good-looking yearling ram and a prize-winner. Pampered too are the Budweiser Clydesdales, Belgian draft horses, a tiger kitten with celebrity parents, rare Asian potbelly hogs and African Ankole Watusi cattle, which boast horns spanning 15 feet.

In fact, from Awesome, a 900-pound boar, to Dick and John, two horses that pull the hayride cart, almost every animal at the Los Angeles County Fair receives preferential treatment. The elephants don’t work for peanuts around here, and only the pigs are treated like swine.

Red-carpet treatment seems only fitting for the feature attraction of the nation’s largest county fair, the estimated 13,000 animals who parade, perform and produce for more than a million people each year.

“These animals are so much better off than any others. They’re well fed, well-cared for and loved,” said 20-year-old Vicki Aden, Rem’s beautician. Aden and her mother, Phyllis, brought eight sheep from Chandler, Ariz., to compete at the 60th annual fair.

Such special attention is not always apparent--especially to “city-folk” and others who often don’t realize what animal care and training are all about. Many fair-goers think the animals on display are abused.

A couple passing by IQ Zoo, a coin-operated exhibit of trained chickens, rabbits and ducks, clucked their tongues as they watched one duck play a bass drum from inside a small wooden cabinet. “They must shock them or something to make them do that. Cruel,” the woman muttered.

Crowds watching the American International Cup sheep-shearing contest were equally perplexed as burly men forcibly grabbed lambs and shaved them to the skin with electric shears. Young children whispering “Poor sheep!” clutched the arms of their parents.

Perceptions of animal abuse or ill treatment by handlers or owners are ones that fair officials and exhibitors are working to dismiss.

“I think it’s important to promote sales, keep up quality and present good livestock, but above all, the purpose of the fair is education,” said Bill Turnquist, agricultural manager. Turnquist has worked at the fair for 35 years and now heads a staff of 50. “The backbone of this country is agriculture, and we’d like to show that to people, to teach them what it’s all about.”

At the New Zealand Agrodome, four-time world sheep-shearing champion Godfrey Bowen tried to do just that. As he described to a packed audience nine of his country’s best breeds, the English Leicester, sporting crinkled wool and Afro bangs, jumped onto its platform amid applause.

“Look--reggae sheep,” whispered John Omoto, 18, from Covina.

This is the second year that Bowen has imported the popular Agrodome show to the fair, a tedious process even for a man who has spent 45 years traveling the world to teach sheep-shearing.

“Our goal is to present the sheep and wool industry in a dramatic way, so the importance of wool, meat and breeding is emphasized on stage,” he said.

The Great American Petting Zoo used the same idea. An all-girl staff watched as toddlers ran after ducks, teen-agers fed seed to llamas, goats and fawns, and adults cautiously poked fingers into the cage of Shere-Khan, a playful tiger kitten. Shere-Khan didn’t seem to mind sharing his pen with Dodd and Claude, two baby pygmy goats, and Aspen, a baby fawn.

“We have two main ideas we want to show: that animals of all kinds and children can get along so well, and that different breeds can get along,” said Stacy Regan, promotional manager for the Oregon-based zoo. “Even kids who live in Chico, with horses and dogs, come in here and are surprised when they learn a chicken lays eggs.”

Some fair-goers learned through the accelerated method, as they watched five lambs at Heritage Farm give birth to ewes in the farm’s petting corral.

Cliff Dotson, a worker at the barnyard replica, served as midwife. “I heard the people talking but I was busy and couldn’t pay much attention,” said the old-timer, sporting a straw hat, overalls and work boots. “But I could tell they’ve never seen anything like it.”

The animals are not just teaching tools and prize money to exhibitors. Noted Turnquist: “People live with their animals. It’s their life. You can feel what the animals mean to them.”

Helen and Al Hull have been baby-sitting from 6 a.m. until midnight every day since the fair began. It’s the 15th year at the Pomona event for the Durham farmers, who brought 42 sheep to show.

“The general atmosphere, the treatment from management, the nice people . . . they all bring us back,” Helen Hull said.

The Hulls are two of more than 3,000 animal exhibitors from 24 states and two foreign countries who participate in the show competitions at the fair. The shows are big business: Sheep competition offers $54,000 in premiums, while cattle payoffs exceed $100,000.

But features like the pig races, horse races and petting zoo attract the most crowds. The World of Pigmania, an authentic shepherd’s camp, Furry Friends and Fancy Feathers (an exhibit of poultry, rabbits, game birds and small stock) and elephant rides also draw curious faces and curious questions.

Back at the livestock building, a little girl watched Phyllis Aden shave the excess wool from Rem’s coat.

“Doesn’t it hurt him?” she asked, wincing as parts of the ram’s fleece dropped to the ground.

“Not a bit,” Vicki answered, grinning sheepishly. The mutton cut was the fourth one she’d given that day; the answer was the thousandth.