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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Zoo foreman became local celebrity
A regular on TV show, captured animals on lam
Cor Janson helped capture leopard, moose. (GERRY CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store
An entire generation of Winnipeggers was introduced to zoo animals, thanks to Cor Janson.
Janson, the foreman at the Assiniboine Park Zoo starting in the 1960s, died earlier this month. He was 73.
Born in the Netherlands, Janson worked at the Rotterdam Zoo before coming to Canada in 1964.
He worked for years at the Assiniboine Park Zoo and was a regular guest, along with zoo animals, on CKY's television show for children, Archie and his Friends, featuring Uncle Bob and his ventriloquist dummy, Archie.
As well, Janson would help out at a fur factory so he could skin the animals, including bears and wolves, and preserve the skulls to show children at zoo camp.
Through the years, Janson was featured in many photos in the Free Press holding zoo newborns and other animals.
He made headlines in February 1974 when an escaped snow leopard from the zoo nearly jumped him before he could fire a shot from a tranquillizer gun to knock the animal out.
"I pulled back and then his attention was distracted," Janson said at the time, admitting he was still feeling shaky over the incident.
He had tracked the leopard, named Shadow, for 90 minutes and shot it from two metres away.
City officials commended him for approaching the animal "at great risk" to himself.
It wasn't the only time Janson's shooting skills came in handy.
A wild moose showed up in the city in July 1972, swimming across the Red River four times while police and wildlife authorities chased it.
The animal was finally captured when Janson shot it with a tranquillizer gun as it ran down Eugenie Street in St. Boniface, collapsing a few minutes later after crossing the Seine River.
The moose was taken to the zoo, where it was to live with a young female moose.
Janson is survived by a brother and sister.
His funeral service is being held Saturday in Beausejour, followed by interment at Riverland Cemetery in Lac du Bonnet.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 4, 2012 B3
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