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Animal welfare education: an evaluation study
We are delighted to report that SCAS has been awarded a grant of £14,000 from The Kennel Club Charitable Trust to undertake research into animal welfare education for children. The project aims to conduct an evaluation of the newly-developed Blue Cross children's education programme.
Animal neglect in the UK continues to rise and the need for effective animal welfare education programmes is pressing. The Blue Cross children's education programme aims to promote responsible animal ownership to children under the age of 12 years, through a network of volunteer speakers and their temperament-tested dogs.
As far as we are aware, this is the first evaluation of its kind to determine the success of getting the responsible pet ownership message across to children. The results of this pioneering research will be shared widely among educational practitioners as well as other animal welfare organisations. The research is likely to have significant impact on the development of similar education programmes in the UK and worldwide, particularly in terms of establishing clear criteria for running effective programmes.
A summary of the full report was published in our Summer 2009 journal, which is free to all members of our organisation. A copy can be found here.
If you would like more information on The Blue Cross children's education programme, please email the Blue Cross education team.