14 DAY TRIAL // Since antiquity, people have built statues to the animals. This was done for various religious or cultural reasons. For example, the animal could have represented the image of a god or was linked to local myths and legends, like the famous Roman statue of the she-wolf feeding Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.
Copies of this famous statue are found today in many countries speaking Romance (Latin-derived) languages, as these people have Roman roots: from Spain to Romania.
In 1969, in Gansu province (China), the oldest and perhaps most beautiful statue of a horse has been found. The bronze from 100 AD represents a galloping horse neighing with its head and tail raised. To suggest the flushed upsurge, all the weight of the horse is sustained by the hind right limb, which is sustained by a flying bird, while the other three limbs are on the air.
In Berlin, a horse statue commemorates the horses that died on the battlefields.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Seattle citizens raised a monument dedicated to the cow "as a sign of supreme appreciation for the humble quadruped beings, which feed us with their beneficent milk", as written on the pedestal. A similar monument can also be found on the Danish city of Faaborg.
In the 19th century, Mukama, king of the feudal state of Karagwe assigned skilled Arab smiths living on his court to make the statues of seven sacred cows out of forged iron. The famous explorers John Speck and Henry Stanley wrote about the iron cows and the fine skill required for making them. Subsequently, the cows were lost, being discovered three decades ago in a stone career.
In Switzerland, there is the statue of a mule, in Rome that of a donkey, in Norway that of a whale and in Paris and Tokyo monuments dedicated to frogs can be seen. In many Spanish cities and in Marseille there are bull statues in natural sizes, commemorating the bull fights while in Stuttgart, a fish statue commemorates .. king Wilhelm I of Prussia. In the Alaskan city of Ketchikan there is a wood monument representing a salmon, dedicated to millions of salmons arriving in the rivers of the area for laying their eggs.
In Wales, there is a statue dedicated to the rabbit from "Alice in the Wonderland", Lewis Carroll's book.
In the main square of Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, there is a statue dedicated to the snake god. Nepalese people come daily to worship the god and pray for peace and health.
In 1593, the inhabitants of the city of Klagenfurt (Austria) discovered a huge skull nearby. This boosted a local superstition that the city was built over a marsh once inhabited by a man-eating dragon, killed by a brave warrior. This made the locals raise a statue to the dragon, and hero too, even if now we know that the skull belonged in fact to an extinct rhinoceros species.
During a Medieval siege of the city of Munster (Germany) the attackers saw a cock on the walls of the city. They believed that the plan of starving the city failed and they abandoned the siege. Actually, the city dwellers were experiencing severe hunger and the grateful citizens of the city raised a statue for the savior cock.
In 1922, a monument dedicated to those that died in France during the First War depicts a cock over a Globe.
In the Russian region of Vladimir, there is the Crystal Goose city. On the edge of a lake, there is the statue of a goose, with stretched wings, ready to fly. Legend says that an ancient artist once blew a goose in crystal, hence the name of the city.
In Lille (France), there is a statue dedicated to the voyaging doves. During the First World War, these birds were used for carrying messages between various combatant units of the French army.
England too glorified them. A bomber of the German aviation damaged severely a British submarine. The raising gear no longer worked, and the crew was condemned to a slow death. There was just a minute chance: two doves kept by an amateur on the deck were introduced in a salvation capsule and launched to the surface, with the hope that at least one will turn back to the base. And they did! They flew hundreds of kilometers over a stormy ocean, delivering the message that transmitted the coordinates of the disabled submarine. The help came in time, and the crew was saved. A monument commemorates the hero doves, which received the highest British military decoration and were made crew members.
In 1841, in the city of Kuleshovka (now Ukraine), a mammoth stone monument was raised in 1839, and a big mammoth cemetery had been found two years earlier in the surroundings.
The most famous statue dedicated to an insect is that found in Dalby, Queensland. The species that had this honor is the cactus moth (Cactoblastis cactorum). Two centuries ago, English brought to Australia the Opuntia cactus, whose fruits resembled prickly pears (and were comestible) and the flowers were extremely beautiful. The cactus was meant to be used for creating fences. But the plant had an unimaginable spreading power, and soon covered huge areas, turning into a pest. The cactus can grow as high as a tree, and nothing else grows around.
Tractors and machines did not work for stopping the cactus, whose seeds were dispersed by wind, water and birds, conquering new areas. The solution was found in this humble South American moth, the natural predator of the cactus in its native areas. 2750 millions of moth eggs were imported and in 10 years, the cactus invasion was stopped. Who said insects are just annoyance?
The only other known statue dedicated to an insect is found in US. In Alabama, cotton monoculture led to disaster. An invasion of boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) ruined the farmers. Then, the farmers understood that cultivating just one crop was not good and started to cultivate other crops, too. When they got rid of the pest beetle, they built a statue in Enterprise.