Written by Camille White // Photo by Caleb Chunn
During midterm exams week, Harding Campus Life hosted a petting zoo on the front lawn to provide students with a break. The event lasted from 3-5 p.m. Oct. 10.
The mobile petting zoo, Cockrill’s Country Critters, is located in Austin, Arkansas. They brought about 25 animals from nine species, including piglets, ducks, chickens, rabbits, goats, cows, a llama, a pony and an alpaca.
Director of Campus Life Jane Chandler said two of her student workers presented the idea to her after visiting the White County Fair.
“This is the same group that goes to the White County Fair every year, the petting zoo, and so one of them went to the fair, texted me and was like, ‘We should do a petting zoo on campus,’” Chandler said.
Chandler said she was nervous about getting the petting zoo approved since it was on the front lawn. However, Campus Life was able to host the event since they agreed not to put stakes in the ground and to clean everything up afterward.
“I wouldn’t say I wrote it off, but I was just like, how would we even do that?” Chandler said. “How do we get all these animals? I just had no idea. Then the next day, not knowing that one student worker had said that, another one brought the business card of this company.”
Chandler said they wanted to do the petting zoo during midterms to provide a break from exams, and it fit well into the University’s schedule.
“Obviously, the library does therapy dogs during finals and things like that, so we thought this would be a fun midterm thing,” Chandler said. “It’s just nice to have a little breather, and who doesn’t love animals?”
Senior Hank Noblin, a student worker for Campus Life, said Lisanne Cheatham had the original idea for the petting zoo, and that he received the business card for Cockrill’s Country Critters. Noblin said it turned out to be a popular event.
“We advertised that it started at 3 p.m., and they were setting up at about 2:20 p.m. and there were already just a flock of students,” Noblin said. “I hope that everyone who came out had a good time.”
Freshman Danielle Morgan said she attended the petting zoo after hearing about it from a friend.
“I [had] just had a test, so it [was] nice to come out here and see the animals,” Morgan said. “I used to live on an alpaca farm, actually. So it’s cool to see them.”
