Students read an excerpt in our reading text book from a touching story about Andy Bear, a polar bear cub that was born at the Atlanta Zoo in the 1980s. Then they were asked to consider the following question: "A lot of time, money, and care was spent to save Andy's life. Some people might think it wasn't worth it just to save one polar bear. What do you think — and why?" Here are two especially well thought out responses.
There has been some talk about a polar bear cub named Andy Bear. Some people think it was not worth it to save her. I think they’re wrong. I think they should have saved her for many reasons. Here is why. For one thing it is really rare for a polar bear to even live in a zoo. Also, since it is so rare for a zoo to get a polar bear, the zoo might raise even more money than they spent for her, because people would pay to see her. Plus, because of global warming polar bear homes are being destroyed all over the world, so baby polar bears need protection. Another reason is it’s rare for a baby polar bear to survive because often the father polar bear eats the baby cub. Lastly, it is just cruel to let a baby animal just die on purpose. In conclusion, that is why I think it was worth letting Andy Bear live.
— by Jonathan
My opinion is the people who work at the zoo should not have spent all that money and time on Andy Bear. I don’t think they should have because it said that Constance who is in charge of Andy Bear had to take time off from her job and the other animals at the zoo. She should not have to do that for one little polar bear. Also there are a lot of other animals in the world that need lots of help or even just a little help. Why should Andy Bear be more important than all those other animals? Next is that Constance, the zookeeper could have been in danger. The story said that Constance and her friends loved romping with Andy Bear, but they were always careful of the frisky bear’s very sharp teeth. Constance had already lost a finger nail. The bear is also running around destroying her garden. They also went through two different milk formulas just to save him, and he almost died the first time. So I don’t think they should have spent more money on him to change formula. They also have to spend money on his food almost every week. So that’s why I don’t think they should have spent all that time and money on Andy Bear.
— by Owen
