livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as
pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...
s that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many animals. Construction and terminology vary depending on the region of the world, purpose, animal species to be confined, local materials used and tradition. ''Pen'' or ''penning'' as a verb refers to the act of confining animals in an enclosure.
Similar terms are
kraal
Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of th ...
, boma, and corrals. Encyclopædia Britannica notes usage of the term "kraal" for elephant corrals in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
Australia and New Zealand
In Australia and New Zealand a ''pen'' is a small enclosure for livestock (especially sheep or
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
), which is part of a larger construction, e.g. ''calf pen'', ''forcing pen'' (or yard) in sheep or cattle
yards
The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.914 ...
, or a ''sweating pen'' or ''catching pen'' in a
shearing shed
Shearing sheds (or wool sheds) are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities.
In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds ar ...
. In Australian and New Zealand English, a
paddock
A paddock is a small enclosure for horses. In the United Kingdom, this term also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly Formula 1.
Description
In Canada and the United States of America, a paddock is a small ...
may encompass a large, fenced grazing area of many acres, not to be confused with the American English use of ''paddock'' as interchangeable with ''corral'' or ''pen'', describing smaller, confined areas.
Britain
In British English, a sheep pen is also called a ''folding'', ''sheepfold'' or ''sheepcote''. Modern
shepherd
A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...
s more commonly use terms such as ''closing or confinement pen'' for small sheep pens. Most structures today referred to as ''sheepfolds'' are ancient
dry stone
Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
semicircles.
India
Kraal term is used for an elephant enclosure, as for jailing an elephant who had injured two villagers in
Kanha Tiger Reserve
Kanha Tiger Reserve, also known as Kanha–Kisli National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two protected areas, Hallon and Banjar ...
in 2020.
Sri Lanka
Panamure Panamure is a village located in the Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. It is approximately from Colombo and from Ratnapura.
The village is significant because it is the site of the last elephant kraal in Sri Lanka, Panamure E ...
was an enclosure and associated town founded in 1896 within a forest owned by
Francis Molamure
Sir Alexander Francis Molamure, (7 February 1888 – 25 January 1951) (commonly known as Sir Francis Molamure or A. F. Molamure) was a Ceylonese politician. He became the first speaker of both the State Council of Ceylon and Parliament of Ceyl ...
, where 10 roundups of wild elephants occurred, the last in 1950. The term kraal referred to the enclosure and to a roundup/hunt.
Thailand
The
Elephant Kraal of Ayutthaya
Elephant Kraal of Ayutthaya, or Elephant Corral of Ayutthaya is a historic place in Ayutthaya Province, Thailand. It is considered part of the Ayutthaya Historical Park.
Description
The Elephant Kraal is known in Thai as ''Phaniat Khlong Chang'' ...
, in
Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to:
* Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767
** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom
* Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locally ...
, a provincial capital, dates from the 1500s. The last roundup of wild elephants was in 1903.
United States
In the United States, the term ''pen'' usually describes outdoor small enclosures for holding animals. These may be for encasing livestock or pets that cannot be kept indoors. Pens may be named by their purpose, such as a ''holding pen'', used for short-term confinement. A pen for cattle may also be called a ''corral'', a term borrowed from the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
. Groups of pens that are part of a larger complex may be called a ''stockyard'', where a series of pens hold a large number of animals, or a ''
feedlot
A feedlot or feed yard is a type of animal feeding operation (AFO) which is used in intensive animal farming, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called conc ...
'', which is a type of stockyard used to confine animals that are being fattened. A large pen for horses is called a ''paddock'' (Eastern US) or a ''corral'' (Western US). In some places, an exhibition arena may be called a ''show pen''. A small pen for horses (no more than 15–20 feet on any side) is only known as a pen if it lacks any roof or shelter, otherwise, it is called a ''stall'' and is part of a
stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...
. A large fenced grazing area of many acres is called a ''pasture'', or, in some cases, ''rangeland''.
Notable corrals
Several notable corrals are known in the United States, including many listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
, either in intact form or in ruins.
Other regions
Primitive pens in South Africa are called ''
kraal
Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of th ...
s''. ''Keddah'' is the term used in India for the enclosure constructed to entrap elephants, in Ceylon the word employed in the same meaning is ''corral''. In Indonesia it calle kandang
Exercise pen
For pets, specialized folding fencing referred to as an exercise pen, x-pen, or ex-pen, is used to surround an area, usually outdoors but not always, in which the animals can freely move around. They are commonly used for dogs, such as to give puppies or adult dogs more space than
dog crate
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. ...
s, but can also be used for rabbits and other animals. Exercise pens are usually made of sturdy wire, but can also be plastic or wood.
Horses, during training, are often exercised in a
round pen
The round pen, sometimes called a bullpen, is a round enclosure used for horse training. They range in diameter from a minimum of to a maximum of , with most designs in diameter. Footing is usually sand
animal pound
An animal pound is a place where stray livestock were impounded. Animals were kept in a dedicated enclosure, until claimed by their owners, or sold to cover the costs of impounding.
Etymology
The terms "pinfold" and "pound" are Saxon in origi ...
, where a
poundmaster
A poundmaster, or poundkeeper, was a local government official responsible for the feeding and care of stray livestock such as domestic pigs, cattle, horses, sheep, and geese. This was common in colonial America and continued into the 19th century ...
may operate
*
Boô
A boô (also spelled boo or boe) is an old Saxon building where a farmer could spend the night with his cattle if he let them graze far outside the village. The buildings, which had separate areas for cattle and farmer to live, were made with chea ...
*
Kraal
Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of th ...
*
Boma (enclosure)
A boma is a livestock enclosure, community enclosure, stockade, corral, small fort or a district government office, commonly used in many parts of the African Great Lakes region, as well as Central and Southern Africa. It is particularly assoc ...
*
Compound (enclosure)
Compound when applied to a human habitat refers to a cluster of buildings in an enclosure, having a shared or associated purpose, such as the houses of an extended family (e.g. the Kennedy Compound for the Kennedy family). The enclosure may be a ...