Essay Ideas 16 to 20

Badger Encounters in the Wild book
Superb book of Jim Crumley's encounters with badgers in the wild in Scotland. The quality of the writing is superb. A great  read. Click here to buy: Encounters in the wild

16. Adopt an Animal

A zoo run a very successful "Adopt An Animal" scheme, where you can adopt absolutely any animal of any kind. People pay £25 per year to the zoo. In return they get a book and a video about the animal species, plus a quarterly magazine about all the animals that have been adopted; and the zoo send £10 to a charity for the type of animal concerned (for example £10 towards St Tiggiwinkles for Hedgehogs). However, half the time the zoo do not have any animals of the types adopted, so that half the time the stories are works of fiction.

• What is the zoo doing wrong?
• Is it doing anything right?

17. Badger Brushes

The chairman of a badger group in the UK uses a badger-hair shaving brush. The hair was taken from the American badger which died from natural causes.

• Is he a hypocrite for using badger products?

18. Conflicting rights?

A tiny woodland theatre specialises in entertaining physically and mentally handicapped youngsters. The theatre want to build a concrete path around the wood and illuminate it at night and provide music and tactile shapes. All this new noise and activity at night would certainly disturb the badgers who live nearby, and would reduce their ability to feed.

• How do you balance the right to life for the badgers against the desire for entertainment by the youngsters?

19. Badger Damage?

A stately home have a well-made and famous organic vegetable garden. The food from the garden is served in their restaurant to people who want to buy meals. Unfortunately, it appears that some of the vegetables are being dug up by a badger. The badgers also eat windfall fruit (that can't be sold anyway), and they do clear up bits of picnics left by visitors.

• How do you weigh up the loss of profits the badgers actually do to the garden?
• Would it be morally acceptable for the stately home to install a painful (but otherwise harmless) electric fence to keep the badger out?
• How might they assess the risks of trying to be "pro-organic" and "anti-wildlife"?

20. Ancient Crimes?

200 years ago it was a tradition in Scotland to give various bits of dead badgers as gifts or trophies (for example, teeth, claws, face masks, etc). Whilst the killing of badgers was allowed 200 years ago, it isn't now.

• What are the arguments for and against keeping or destroying these ancient trophies?
• Would it be acceptable to sell these trophies, and give the profits to a badger charity?
• Would it be better to simply take the trophies, and bury them in the ground?