Working Animals

People keep animals because they like them. Some people keep animals because the animals work for them. Many animals work for people, for example, donkeys, horses, elephants and dogs.

Water buffaloes are very large. They look like cows, but they have very big horns. People in Europe and Asia keep them on farms to pull ploughs.

Camels are the largest animals in the desert. They are very strong. People ride them to cross the desert.

Elephants are big and strong. People in Thailand use them to carry people and drag logs.

Dogs like working with people. Many dogs work on farms: They help farmers to herd cattle and sheep.

Dogs help the police to catch thieves. They also help the police to find people when they are lost in the mountains or under the ground.

Some dogs help blind people. We call these dogs guide dogs.A guide dog is 'the eyes' of a blind person. When there is a red traffic light, the guide dog stops. When the light is green, the guide dog leads the blind person across the road.

Some fishermen in China use cormorants to catch fish. Cormorants are big black birds. They are good at catching fist.

They have large feet and they use their feet to push them quickly through the water. They can swim very well and stay under the water for about two minutes.

When a fisherman goes fishing with his cormorants, he ties apiece of grass round the neck of each cormorant, so it does not wallow the fish. Then the fisherman pushes the cormorants into the water and the cormorants catch fish with their beaks.