Pen (enclosure)

A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets 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, boma, and corrals. Encyclopædia Britannica notes usage of the term "kraal" for elephant corrals in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In Australia and New Zealand a pen is a small enclosure for livestock (especially sheep or cattle), which is part of a larger construction, e.g. calf pen, forcing pen (or yard) in sheep or cattle yards, or a sweating pen or catching pen in a shearing shed. In Australian and New Zealand English, a paddock 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. In British English, a sheep pen is also called a folding, sheepfold or sheepcote. Modern shepherds 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 semicircles. Kraal term is used for an elephant enclosure, as for jailing an elephant who had injured two villagers in Kanha Tiger Reserve in 2020. Panamure was an enclosure and associated town founded in 1896 within a forest owned by Francis Molamure, where 10 roundups of wild elephants occurred, the last in 1950. The term kraal referred to the enclosure and to a roundup/hunt. The Elephant Kraal of Ayutthaya, in Ayutthaya, a provincial capital, dates from the 1500s. The last roundup of wild elephants was in 1903. 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.