How many times have you heard of cases where kids are involved in incidents of cruelty towards harmless animals? Violent films and video games that kids are exposed to these days can in some cases make them more aggressive and less compassionate or desensitize them. Others just don’t understand what their actions truly mean; that animals feel fear, and pain and that death is real not like in TV.
Children can be made more compassionate, kind and empathetic members of society if adults take meaningful steps and teach them the ways to treat animals kindly. Learning begins at an early stage and if children today learn to treat animals kindly, it can help pave a way to a better and more responsible society in the future. School is the best place where a child can learn to love animals. The sooner a school implements such lessons, the better.
A child feels more inclined to love and appreciate something when he or she feels adequately convinced about its goodness. Young kids in the age groups of 3 to 4 years can be told about the joys of keeping pets and how pets like dogs, cats can be the most loving and selfless friends. Children can also learn to appreciate animals through entertaining cartoon shows and story books about characters like Kipper the Dog, Tweety the cute yellow canary and Snoopy, the well known Charlie Brown character. Parents and teachers can take children to animal shelters and encourage them to help with small tasks, such as cleaning kennels, feeding rescued animals and grooming dogs and cats.
Children also learn when adults set precedents for them. Adults must speak out when they witness cruelty to animals. By turning a blind eye to such things, a parent or guardian communicates to children that cruelty may be okay. It is not essential to get into a major confrontation with anyone but whenever appropriate, the incident must be reported to proper authorities. Prevention of cruelty to animals is important at all levels. Many animal lovers are also vegetarians or vegans and kids too can be taught about the goodness of a vegetarian diet. This helps them be aware of numerous benefits of vegetarianism while also becoming more loving and kind toward animals. You can further their love for animals by gifting only toys that will encourage their learning and motor skills instead of ones like violent video games or toy guns.
Teach kids to treat animals kindly and it will help them become more mature, understanding and noble members of our society!