Humane Education

WSPA promotes humane education programs to encourage respect for animals and responsible stewardship. We also provide training on the humane treatment and care of animals and strive to put in place the laws and enforcement structures to provide legal protection for animals.

Kindness Clubs

WSPA’s Kindness Clubs aim to foster respect for animals and the environment amongst children and teach a better understanding of the needs of animals.

The first Kindness Clubs were formed in South America in the early 1970s. A few years later Kindness Clubs appeared in Africa and more recently clubs have been introduced to Indonesia.

The goal of the clubs is to educate children to understand the need to protect the environment and to develop a genuine respect for all forms of life, beginning with the animals most familiar to them such as pets and farm animals.

The clubs are run through schools so that the expertise of the teachers can be utilised to disseminate information contained in the quarterly Kindness Club newsletters.

Members are encouraged to write articles and poems for the newsletters and to draw pictures related to the theme of kindness to animals. If their submissions are selected they are given Kindness Club T-shirts, caps or pens as prizes. They are also encouraged to enter the quarterly competitions.

Aims of Kindness Clubs include offering members the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences related to all animals, to learn from each other and to spark an interest and compassion for all animals.

Kindness Club Indonesia

Kindness Club Bali, run by the Bali Street Dog Foundation (Yudisthira) in Indonesia has reached more than 3,000 children since 2003. Schools in the capital, Denpasar and in some other cities are visited by an education team at a regular basis.

Kindness Club Africa

The Kindness Club programme has been running in Africa for almost ten years and has a total of 900 clubs in 34 African countries. Most of the clubs form part of the extra-curricular activities within schools.

Caring for Animals
 
In some countries, notably the UK and the USA, individuals and organisations have been producing humane education materials and programmes for a considerable time.
These sometimes have to be adapted substantially before being suitable for use in other countries with different issues and concerns. Indigenous animal welfare organisations often produce humane education materials suitable for their countries, in terms of the topics covered, the language and the teaching methods.

A variety of these teaching resources would be suitable for other countries with similar problems, with some modifications to make them more widely applicable. The Caring for Animals Manual is a superb example of such a resource.

Caring for Animals Manual

The Caring for Animal Manual written by Life Conservationist Association in Taiwan consists of 22 teaching activities that help children to understand and explore our relationships with dogs and cats. It shows them how to care for these animals and teaches the children about problems facing stray animals using practical methods.

Adapt for Regional Use

Where necessary, teachers can adapt resources to meet the needs of their regions, often with the help of local animal welfare societies.