I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.  So sang Whitney Houston in The Greatest Love of all.

Whitney was on to something.

If there is any hope at all to change the condition of animal welfare in this country, we have to educate the children.

When I was a kid we got smacked when we needed it, I rarely if ever heard of family services being called.  That began changing toward the end of my high school years.

It was definitely enforced with my own children through the school system and I know it worked, because many times in the heat of an argument if they felt threatened in any way, my children would remind me, “If you hit me, I’m calling the police.”

Trust me, my children were never beaten and the police were never called.  My point is, they were educated about child abuse and understood they had the right to be protected.

I believe it’s possible to teach children the proper way to treat animals.  I see it with my own grandchildren.  They are taught how to behave around and be respectful to my dogs.

My daughter was telling me a story about Tara Costa who was on Biggest Loser a few seasons ago.

Tara was in Atlanta for a speaking engagement.  Somewhere near the airport she saw two dogs running on the highway.  She stopped and managed to grab one, a pit bull mix.  She started driving around looking for an owner, when she came across a group of kids.  The kids said, Hey that’s Bishop and then one kid looked at her and said, Don’t give him back, they fight him.

The long and short of the story is, the dog’s owners came out to the car and Tara noticed Bishop cowering.  She made a split second decision and high-tailed it out of there.  The last I knew Bishop was recovering at a facility in New York and would be up for adoption soon.*

Shortly after I heard this story I saw a blog post on Pittieful Love Lovebug Goes to School.

I knew the two would tie together perfectly for Blog The Change.

Animal education could easily be incorporated into our nations school curriculum.

Just as we have educated children about the dangers of drugs, and abuse, we need to educate them about the proper care and treatment of animals.  When we do that, and start at a young age you will begin to see changes in society.

I think this could be accomplished very easily, by engaging rescue groups in each state to provide local schools with the following:

• Printing up inexpensive flyers with important phone numbers in the area that provide low-cost spaying and neutering programs.
• A toll-free hotline where people can report cases of suspected abuse or neglect.
• Animal welfare programs in our schools where children are educated in the proper treatment of animals.

It may be hard to change adult minds, but children are little sponges, they soak up information.  We just need to make sure they get the right information and they in turn will help to bring about real change.

Big beef’s got nothing on the kids of this nation.  We can ensure our farming is humane.

Dog fighting can become history.  Granted an ugly part of history, but sadly many aspects of history are ugly.

BSL? Won’t know what hit it.  Kids know, it’s not how you look that matters, it’s what in your heart.

Granted, it may take some time, but time and money well spent if we are headed in the right direction.

We’ve seen the proof with so many issues.

I’ve contacted my state representative and have a meeting set-up to discuss this issue.

I’m ready for real change, how about you?  Will you join me?

Just imagine the possibilities.

* (Note, this story took place in June.  At the time I contacted Tara Costa, but she did not respond to my e-mail.  The details of this story are based upon what my daughter told me and what I discovered on Tara’s facebook page.)