By Dorothea Friz, DVM, Lega Pro Animale
The Foundation Mondo Animale offered again during the school year 2014/2015 a free-of-charge project to all lower high schools of the Region of Campania. On the morning of June 3, the project “Animali come Noi” (“Animals and Humans”) ended with awards presented to the students who found the right answer to our quiz at the end of the meetings.
In September 2014, the Foundation – that has been working for years to promote respect for domestic animals, in order to improve their welfare – sent a letter to all lower high schools in the Region of Campania offering interactive meetings with students.
The project was a great success and 15 schools (200 classes, about 4,000 students) from the entire Region of Campania (provinces of Naples, Caserta, Avellino, Salerno, Benevento) took part. Compared with the last school year, the number of schools participating in the Foundation’s new project has doubled. In 100 meetings during 50 school days, the students discussed with the staff of the Foundation the daily needs of dogs. Starting from subjects like appropriate nutrition and care (physiological, psychological and behavioral issues), the students came to nearly professional conclusions, e.g. prevention of diseases, identification/registration of dogs and cats and birth control.
The Foundation was particularly surprised by the knowledge of the students concerning spaying/neutering as the only method of answering a stray problem. Five students from different schools managed to find the correct answer to our question how many millions of puppies will be born from a couple of dogs in ten years. For this calculation, we assume that: they have litters twice a year with five puppies each, all females will be pregnant again at the age of five months and none of those puppies are going to die.
During the celebration, the Foundation honored the winning students with two books: “Un cane in famiglia” (“The family dog”) of Maria Luisa Cocozza and “Il cane intelligente” (“The intelligent dog”) of Juliane Kaminski.
Everybody was enthusiastic about the project: students, teachers, headmasters and naturally the Foundation. All of them are happily waiting for the beginning of the new school year and the meetings planned in autumn.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/LegaProAnimale
https://twitter.com/LegaproAnimale
www.fondazionemondoanimale.com
www.facebook.com/fondazionemondoanimale
https://twitter.com/F_MondoAnimale
Photos: Courtesy of Lega Pro Animale
Art, animals, and the earth 