World Animal Week

World Animal Week starts tomorrow. This is the first year of my short teaching career that it has fallen in the holidays. This means I don't get to interesting Animal Rights lessons as part of World Animal Week*. I am always fascinated by different attitudes towards animals - particularly those shown in by young teens in a Social Studies class.

Animals are a part of everyone's lives. The majority of people have grown up with some sort of pet and have had a special bond with an animal at some point in their lives. The relationships teenagers have with pets is often really touching. At a time when adolescence can make relationships with your parents strained and friendships with peers change substanially from the simpler friendships of childhood, your pet can often provide a constant and unjudgemental love. Cats and dogs do not care who your friends are, what clothes you wear or if you put on weight. I remember when I was upset or depressed as a teen, it was frequently snuggling the cat that cheered me up. When you get students to write about their pets or animals, they often use really tender language. They talk about their pets as being 'their best friends' and usually with some superlatives like the smartest/most awesome/best animal ever. Even aggressive students or kids who like to appear tough will say they love their cat or dog.

If you show a powerpoint with pictures of bear farms or battery chicken, it gets a louder expression of sympathy than those of landmine victims. If you just went by emotional reactions of sympathy for victims, you would believe that people cared more about animals than people. However, there is still a great deal of cruelty and neglect towards animals in this country. Battry farms continue, SPCA's are swamped with animals that are mistreated or abandoned and there are frequent cases in the media of gross cruelty or neglect of farm or domestic animals.

A WSPA news item drew my attention to the ‘ANIMALS MATTER TO ME‘ petition calling for a United Nations Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare. It is seeking 'to recognise animals as sentient beings, capable of experiencing pain and suffering and to recognise that animal welfare is an issue of importance as part of the social development of nations worldwide'.

To read more go to: http://www.wspa.org.uk/news.asp?newsID=244

To sign the online petition go to: http://www.animalsmatter.org/

And because bears are cute and pictures of bear farms or dancing bears with chains through their nose make me too sad.











Aw, so cute!

* Although I guess I can just do it next week as holidays will be over soon.