Children and Animal

When people talk about children, we naturally think of animals. Animals and children both have the qualities of pureness, simplicity and innocence, and they both offer welcoming and nonjudgmental acceptance. Pictures or images of children and animals always catch our attention and bring smiles on our faces.

Arluke (2007) mentioned that children are “wired” to be drawn to living things, and they have natural affinity for animals. This idea is in accordance with biophilia hypothesis, which posits that humans have adapted to be attentive to life forms and

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there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Wilson (1984) defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life^.” Melson (2003) pointed out that the studies of child development have been largely anthropocentric and thus focused on children’s relationship with other humans, when in fact children show interest in and have interactions with non-humans as well, including animals, plants and natural ecologies.

Young animals, including children, are known for their vigorous curiosity. They seem to be always exploring and finding things new to learn. By playing with and observing animals, children learn the similarities and differences between animals and themselves. Thus, they get a chance to construct their identities and to have a better idea of what it is to be a human.

Animals provide children warm company, safety, comfort, love, which give children emotional assurance. Animals are more genuine, straightforward and easy to read (in the sense that they do not hide how they feel), their presences can be considered as less threatening and more stable than relationships with human beings. Elementary school children considered ties with pets most likely to last “no matter what” and “even you get mad at each other.” (Furman 1989). Children consider their relationship with their companion animals the most reliable, and even young as children can see that relationships between humans could corrupt easily for various complex reasons. Some children prefer company of their pets to that of other children, or even their siblings.

Children who have close relationship and bond with their companion animals consider them as part of family.

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In our daily life, there are animal characters, symbols and images everywhere.

Animal characters can sometimes be more advertising and more effective in marketing than human characters. Without doubt, they have strong appeal to children, but maybe not just to children. Adults, who make the majority of consumers and customers, seem to be enticed by animal characters as well. As Arluke (2007) quoted Blum (1949) and added his personal view about animal characters: “Animal images can facilitate freedom of personal expression because they depict characters that possess human qualities in a classless, raceless, ageless, and often sexless way.” One of the strategies that the local convenient stores frequently employ to boost sales is to encourage the customers to collect points and exchange for series of little gifts made of popular animal characters, such as Miffy Rabbit, Peter Rabbit, Paddington Bear, Hello Kitty, just to name a few.

Since animals and children are inseparable, many studies have been done to prove that animals are important for children’s development. Among the many contributions of companion animals, the most important aspect is that they provide opportunities for children to learn about other living beings very different from themselves. Through taking care of the animals, children get to know not only about the body structure, physical needs of the animals, but also behavior and emotions of their animal friends.

The learning experience broadens children’s views about life, and helps them to be less self-centered; instead, to be more understanding, thoughtful and considerate of others.

That is how children develop and practice empathy, as Melson (2007) stressed, “The ability to take the perspective of another, especially when that perspective is different from one’s own, is a crucial building block of empathy.” Furthermore, there are studies and evidences show that the empathy towards animals is linked to empathy towards

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humans. (Asione 1992; Paul 2000) Bryant (1992) pointed out that although there were possible costs of pets to children, such as worrying about pet’s health and safety, pets provide important social support by mutual sharing, ensuring lasting relationship, making children feel loved and feel good about themselves.

The author’s own experience can serve as evidence that keeping pets in childhood is positively related to holding empathic attitudes towards animals through life. The author also hopes that it can teach a good lesson about the importance of proper guidance and education, which can come from family members, school teachers or any caretaker, to teach children “the wrong things” and to do things “in the right ways”.

Love for animals does not necessarily make people do the right things; love can possibly hurt and cause damage too.

Since I was a baby, I was never away from animals. My grandmother raised chicken in the backyard, so I loved touching and holding little furry chicks. My grandmother said that I held them in my hands too tight (out of love) that I suffocated few of them. (Proper guidance and education was needed to teach children how to take care of animals.) When I was about 3 or 4 years old (which I had very little memory of), I had a white cat which was given by my mother’s colleague. I could only see from the old photo that I was very attached to the cat. According to my grandmother, the cat got scared and ran away when she was taken to a veterinarian. I do not remember any of those events, but I believe that somehow the sudden loss of my pet cat left an emotional trauma which can affect me psychologically. (Again, proper emotional support or counseling was needed to help children cope with pet loss.) Growing up, I had

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numerous birds as companions. My family had birds in a wooden cage that got attacked and eaten by rats. Later on, I had many parrots and some of them were still babies when I acquired them and I enjoyed hand-feeding them to build bonds. Some of them even had babies. I had one parrot which I was very attached to, to accompany me for late night studies. I had him/her stand under study light for hours at night when I should have let him/her rest. When he/she died, I was so sad but I did not even know why. I had quails but I was not careful enough so one of them jumped out of the box and drowned in a bucket of water nearby. I had rabbits and I was very close to them, but when their front tooth grew so long that they had trouble eating, I did not know what to do. I took a puppy home, but the place I lived was too small to keep a dog, so my grandmother put him in a cage on the balcony of another apartment. We left him there all alone and only went there to feed him. The dog grew so fast that the cage was too small for him and his barking bothered the neighbors, so my grandmother “released”

him somewhere. In retrospective, I have done so many cruel things to the animals that I feel awfully sorry about. I have always loved animals but if only I were better educated and guided about how to take care of them, I could have been a better and more responsible owner. Instead of making the animals pay the price of my ignorance and finally learned my lesson through their suffering (and death), I could have learned from other sources. I have to say that I did learn about animals (mostly in science and biology classes), but I did not learn anything about how to give proper care to animals, to respect all living beings or anything related to animal welfare from schools and parents.

I do not want my children or my students to experience the same regret and feel sorry the way I did.

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According to A.J. Rud and Alan Beck (2003), there are elementary schools in the States where they keep companion animals in the classroom and have animal visitors to teach responsibility, provide chances of learning hands-on experience to care and nurture, create more fun and to make the classroom more like “home”. Although it has great potential to give children valuable lessons, especially for children who do not have companion animals at home, it has to be done carefully and properly on consideration of animal welfare, under supervision and guidance. Animals might suffer from stress and hazards, and in some places it might not be as feasible as in others. For example, in a classroom in a heavily populated city like Taipei, where the class size is big and the space is limited, may not be a good place for animals to live. Locking animals up in small cages just for displaying does not teach children the right lesson. The purpose of keeping companion animals in classrooms is to educate students to treat animals properly, care for their needs and cater to their welfare.

Many parents find companion animals for their children mainly for the purpose of teaching the children responsibility and providing company. While this might be true in some cases; however, a lot of times when the novelty and excitement subside, feeding and cleaning after the animals become parents’ chores. And just when the parents get tired of “taking over the job from their children,” they get rid of the animals and blame it on their children. That alone teaches the children the worst lesson of irresponsible ownership and not following through the commitment. Besides, a lot of people take animals home without knowing how to take care of them properly. Although not being abandoned, the animals’ welfare is not met and they do not get the proper treatment that any living being deserves. It would be very irresponsible of parents to simply “buy” any

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companion animal from the pet store, and assume that their children know how to nurture a life form so different from themselves and to take responsibility. Proper guidance and education are absolutely necessary.

Parents are human beings too, who need to be educated in order to guide their children. It would be a lot easier if they had already learned how to take care of animals and had been instilled the right attitudes about animals when they were children.

Education is like planting trees, it takes time to grow and see the effects. Rules and regulations are not too hard to set, but culture needs time to mold. New concepts and ideas need to be introduced and advocated. It takes fair amount of time and even a few generations to be accepted, absorbed and eventually become internalized as culture of a society or country. While laws are important to distinguish right from wrong, and set a clear line between what can be done and what cannot be, they do not necessarily encourage people to do the good things. For example, setting an Animal Protection Law which by all means needs to be enforced and obeyed, does not necessarily promote humans empathy towards animals and to respect for life from within. The laws lay the minimum that needs to be done for the animals. Whether one decides to meet only the minimum in order not to violate the laws or choose to do much more for the sake of animal welfare is completely up to one’s morality and conscience. Education is what it takes to lead people towards desired and favorable behaviors voluntarily, and it is crucial to start it early. While a child is growing, forming and developing his/her personality, and picking up ideas about rights or wrongs from surrounding people and environment, it can be the most ideal timing for the child to be directed and shaped towards humanity―positive attitudes and kind behavior towards animals.

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Animals can possibly have positive or negative influences on the children. Animal experience can teach children responsibility, nurturance, compassion and respect;

however, it can also lead children to negligence, abuse, cruelty and hatred. It is not the animals, but the adults― parents and teachers, who hold the key to a possible successful lesson of life that teaches important values to the children. It can make a great impact not only on the children’s lives but also on the animals’. For the well-beings of both children and animals, the role of educator is to be taken by parents and teachers, who have the power to influence children on daily basis.