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Citizen Stewardship Collaboration
Citizen Stewardship Collaboration
By Toni Prothero, Education Director, Second Chance Center for Animals
During summer 2006, the Kids Care! Summer Camps at Second Chance Center for Animals provided an opportunity for collaboration between SCCA and the Grand Canyon Trust. Funding from the Arizona Community Foundation of the Citizen Stewardship Coalition is enabling partner organizations to identify shared goals and to leverage each other’s programs. At first glance it may seem that these two organizations have little in common, one being concerned for the welfare of domestic animals and the other for the habitats of native species. The Kids Care! Summer Camp, however, provided an ideal venue for the education programs of both.
During each weeklong summer camp, children ages eight to thirteen help socialize and care for the dogs and cats awaiting adoption at SCCA. In addition, they learn about the responsibilities of pet ownership, the issue of pet overpopulation, problems of exotic pet ownership and the impact of domestic animals and exotics on the environment and wildlife. Volunteers from Habitat Harmony participated in each camp and provided many hands-on opportunities for the kids to learn about the destruction of habitat of local prairie dog colonies. The children who attend camp are vitally interested in animals of all kinds and many hope to pursue careers with animals. They are the future leaders of the citizen stewardship way of living in ways to sustain and nurture our natural heritage.
For this reason, Kari Malen, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Grand Canyon Trust brought her program to one of our summer camp sessions. Through discussion, brainstorming and games, the children learned about some of the habitat issues of northern Arizona and about the conservation efforts of the Grand Canyon Trust. The kids made their own contribution to these efforts by producing colorful posters advocating the mission of the Grand Canyon Trust. This was an important part of the program as it provided the children with an authentic opportunity to contribute to these conservation efforts. Many of today’s children are acutely aware of the problems faced by wildlife because of habitat degradation and destruction. We need to provide them with opportunities as children to help in our efforts so that they may develop the values of citizen stewardship that must include the value of direct action for the environment and for the welfare of animals, both domestic and wild.
For more information about our education programs at Second Chance Center for Animals, please contact Toni Prothero at toni@secondchancecenter.org.
By Toni Prothero, Education Director, Second Chance Center for Animals
In my role of humane education director for
Dogs behave according to the communication code of canines, and or the training (or lack of) they receive from humans. We share the world with these wonderful creatures and assumed the responsibility for their care when we first enticed them into sharing in the social world of our Ice Age camps. Part of that responsibility involves understanding their minds and the way they perceive and interpret the world around them, and making sure that our children develop this understanding as well. We love our dogs because they seem so like us in their sociability and in their emotions. And we have much in common. However, dogs interpret human behavior based on the canine social communication code. Most people, in my experience, have little understanding of the differences between the human social code and the canine. This lack of knowledge is frequently the cause of dog bites.
There are many reasons we lack this awareness. Children’s books and toys, movies, advertising, all anthropomorphize dogs. How we communicate with others and interpret the communicative gestures, signs and symbols of our human world is done, for the most part, subconsciously. It is understandable, then, that we are so unaware of the differences in the meanings of body postures and orientation between our species and dogs. But in a world in which dogs increasingly share the social space of people and are less and less relegated to the status of farm animals, this lack of understanding can have unfortunate and unacceptable consequences.
What’s to be done? Education, of course, is key. There are many wonderful books for dog owners and admirers that have been printed in recent years that explore the whole area of canine versus primate (i.e.human) communication: The Other End of the Leash; The Dog’s Mind; anything written by Dr. Stanley Coren: these are a few of my favorites. Those of us who are dog guardians are in a special position to be able to educate their non-dog family members and friends, and especially, children who might approach us to interact with our dogs in public. I always use this opportunity to teach the child (and not infrequently, adults) something important about dogs and how to meet a dog safely, and make them meet my dog that way, even though I am fully confident that my dogs will not bite. You don’t know what dog or situation the child might encounter another time.
Dog guardians can also encourage dog trainers to impart more of this kind of information in their classes by asking for it during class. When inquiring about a trainer’s qualifications and approach to training, we can begin to set the expectation that they will teach about dog communication and safety with dogs.
It’s wonderful that dogs are moving increasingly from the backyard into our living rooms and bedrooms, into our stores and out-door cafes. But they deserve respect as well as our affection, and this requires our understanding their nature, and loving and caring for them with that always in mind.
