Kids and our four legged friends both mean the world to their mommys and daddys so it’s imperative that children play nice with their pets.
Here are few pointers on how to make sure youngsters treat animals with respect.
PETA Quick Tips: Teaching Kids Compassion Toward Animals
Teaching kids to have compassion and empathy for their furry, feathered, and finned friends is vital for preventing cruelty to animals as well as in raising them to respect and treat those who are different from them with kindness.
According to the National PTA Congress, “Children trained to extend justice, kindness, and mercy to animals become more just, kind, and considerate in their relations to each other. Character training along these lines will result in men and women of broader sympathies; more humane, more law-abiding, in every respect more valuable citizens.”
Since young children naturally identify with animals, and because animals are living beings like us, we can use our interactions with animals to teach children how to behave toward other people.
Teaching our kids to respect and protect even the smallest and most despised among us is one of the mostimportant life lessons that we can pass along to them. It helps them learn to value one another—and it prevents violence.
Teach Kindness By Example
Listen to yourself with new ears├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥don’t yell “shut up,” “stupid dog,” or other hurtful things.
Never hit animals.
Show that you value animals’ lives by being patient with them, making sure that they all wear an ID tag, spaying or neutering them to prevent unwanted litters, giving them plenty of clean water, and providing regular veterinary care.
Include your animals in your life. Allow your dog to live inside with the family, and spend time with your animal companions daily, brushing them, playing with them, and walking them.
Sometimes tiny creatures wander into our homes—help them find their way out nonviolently.
Avoid statements that demean animals├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥even those made in jest├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥such as “I hate cats” or “Chickens are stupid.”
Remember that toys influence children. Don’t buy toys that even hint at animal exploitation, such as video games that allow children to kill animals or model zoos or circus trains.
Caring Activities
Show your kids that it’s cool to care by regularly engaging them in these and other fun empathy-building activities: Go to your local animal shelter and volunteer with your child to help care for homeless animals.
Plant flowers and shrubbery for butterflies, bees, and other wildlife in your back yard.
During a walk at the beach, in the woods, or by a stream, pick up plastic rings, bottles, and other trash that can kill birds, turtles, dolphins, and other animals.
Watch animal-friendly movies, such as Chicken Run, Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, Shiloh, Free Willy, Babe, My Dog Skip, Finding Nemo, and Shark Tale.
Read your children books that show animals as feeling individuals, such as Lassie Come Home, Black Beauty, Charlotte’s Web, Frederick, Blueberries for Sal, The Forgotten Door, and Make Way for Ducklings.
