Cruelty To Animals

Helen ‘s Zoo

Helen is nine years old and her hobby is hunting. Her great, great grandfather and grandmother were hunters. They hunted large game animals in a faraway country called Africa. They did not kill the animals they hunted. They trapped them and brought them to America for people to see at the zoo.

Helen loved going to the zoo. The first time she went to the zoo, she was three years old and went with her mother and father. The next time she went to the zoo she was five years old and that time her mother and father took her and the new baby. It was fun watching the animals in their cages. Helen wondered would she like to be in a cage and have people or animals stare at her. She decided that would not be much fun. She thought some of the animals looked sad. That made her sad. She decided she would help the animals out by making her own paper zoo at home in her basement playroom. Then people could come to her zoo and the animals could be sent back to their home in the Wilds where they could be free. Then they would all be happy .

Helen decided that she would make it easy for people by making her paper zoo an alphabet zoo. She knew her alphabet really well. She asked her father to tell her the name of an animal whose name started with an A. She could draw but when she made her anteater it did not look like the one at the zoo Helen told her father that she needed a picture of an anteater. He tried to make an anteater. It was better than Helen’s anteater but it did not look like the one at the zoo. Her father said he would help her find a picture of an anteater. Get your library card, he said.

And Helen went on her first hunting trip. Helen was a good hunter just like her great great grandfather and great great grandmother. . She parked her father in the grownup room and went into the children’s room all by herself. She marched herself up to the librarian and said in her most polite voice. “I need an anteater.” The librarian smiled and asked. “Do you know what an anteater looks like?” “Yes Ma’am, I do.” Helen said. “Do you have to make a report for school. “ The librarian asked. “No, I am making a zoo.” The librarian showed Helen to the picture book section of the library and said. “Happy hunting.” Helen looked carefully through many books until at last she found a picture of an anteater. She knew it was an anteater because it had a long nose, long ears and big claws on its front feet. just like the anteater at the zoo. She took the book home and looking at the anteater she drew another anteater . It did not look like the one in the book. Helen was sad. Then she had an idea. “Daddy, when we go to the zoo, can we take a camera?” He said yes and that very next day he took Helen, her little sister Janice and her mother to the zoo. They took pictures of many animals with the polaroid camera. With the aid of his computer, Helen’s father enlarged the picture of the anteater. Helen was happy. She pasted her paper anteater on the wall of her playroom. When her friends came over to play, Helen showed them the beginning of her zoo. The children loved the paper zoo. One girl said I would like to see a bear. A boy said he would like to see an animal called a coati. Helen said. “I will have to go hunting again.”

The A for anteater is the start of Helen’s paper zoo. Will the real anteater go back to it’s home in Africa? We will have to see after all the other animals join Helen’s paper zoo.