Jenna Huffstetler

Mrs. Hofmann
English 1102-057
Three Intros for Inquiry
8 April 2014

1. When was the first or last time that you went to the zoo? The last time I remember going was
with my best friend, Kelsea Smart, from second grade in 2002. I remember making a day out
of it with her family as we walked slowly passed the bamboo trees while my friends mom
pushed my friends little brother in a stroller. We saw lions, tigers, zebras, and elephants in
their wildlife environments in the zoo and did not even realize the animals were domesticated
or the views of the animals being in the zoo. I did not know how any of the animals got to the
zoo, how they were being treated or why some of them sat far away from the fence or in their
cage as I passed by. Even though I have not been to the zoo since that young age, I have now
come to the point of curiosity of how the limited amount of elephants and tigers ended up in
zoos and how animal rights have influenced these views about the best interest of the
location and well-being of these animals.
2. Although animals cannot talk nor can they reason, can they suffer? This is motivating
question and argument for animal rights activists on how they feel that there should be
extreme measures taken for animals safety. Animal rights activist groups, such as PETA,
have done things like protesting for the cause of animal rights or making a point of not
wearing animal fur. The importance of these groups are that the supporters of animal rights
believes that animals have inherent wortha value completely separate from their usefulness
to humans (PETA). If you think about it, everyone who likes animals or who owns a pet
should be a supporter of these animal rights for the sake of the animals in the zoo that are
caged and domesticated as well as the sake of their own pet. As an animal lover, I would like
to do what I can to support the safety of animals altogether: in the home place, in the circus,
and specifically in the zoo. Not knowing the debates on if an elephant or tiger is safe in the
zoo can bring forth the inquiry of curiosity and research about the relationship between
animal rights and the domestication of animals in the zoo.

3. Sixty-two percent of U.S. households own a pet of either a bird, a dog, a cat, a horse, a fish, a
reptile, or a small animal. Owning a pet involves a large amount of time and energy to meet
the needs of oneself and that animal; I can relate to this because as an animal lover I have
owned a few pets over the years with my family. My grandparents currently have two dogs
that they have had for a few years and they have a routine of feeding them and changing their
water. The dogs know when it is time to be fed every morning so they stand outside of the
door waiting; this can be seen as a form of domestication. Domestication started with dogs
about 14,000 years ago where animals have become some sort of a human use. Over the
centuries, animals from our daily pets to animals from the exotic zoo have become an issue
for many animal rights activists due the debate of whether the rare domesticated animals like
elephants and tigers are safe in a zoo environment rather than the natural wild where they
came from.