How to Help Animals | Who's a Kind Kid? | Nominate Your Teacher | Alternatives to Dissection | Tips for Classroom Pets | How to Visit Us |

How to Help Animals

YOU Can Make A Difference!

Thank you for doing kind things to benefit animals. It takes a special person to give to others!
Below are some activities that can help animals. Please review this list with an adult so they can assist you as needed.

Conduct a Collection Drive
Items to collect that help animals include:

• Used towels, sheets, comforters and blankets
• Toys and treats for puppies, kittens, dogs, cats, gerbils/hamsters, mice, rabbits, rats and guinea pigs
• Clean stuffed animals
• Collars, leashes and Gentle Leaders

TIPS:
Create posters and flyers to distribute at school and within your neighborhood. At school you could provide a decorated box in which items may be placed. Within your neighborhood set a date on which you would be willing to go door-to-door and pick-up the items neighbors have left on their porches for the collection drive. Ask that they mark the items for the collection drive so you don't take anything that was not meant to be taken. Please do not personally place flyers in your neighbors mailboxes as this is not legal; items should only be placed in a mailbox by a mail carrier. A suggestion would be to place the flyers just inside your neighbors storm doors.

Build for the animals
Create scratching posts for kittens and cats. Build birdhouses or doghouses. There are many animals in need of such items!

Organize an art display
This could include photographs, paintings or drawings. Hold a poster or essay contest at your school or church! A suggested topic: Be Kind to Animals Everyday!

Write articles
Write about animal adoptions, rescues or heroic animal actions that you learn of and submit them to your school or community papers.

Make a video
Create a video showing how to responsibly care for animals. Share the importance of spaying and neutering. Voice the importance of adopting pets from a local animal shelter. Share your talents by showing the video to your class or school.

Contact your lawmakers
Write to state legislators and representatives to urge them to take an active role on behalf of animals! Find out about any pending animal legislation. Organize a letter writing campaign at school or among your friends. You can contact the League of Women Voters to learn who your state legislators and representatives are currently. Following are the addresses by which you may contact your Senator and Representative:

Senators

The Honorable _____________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Representatives

The Honorable _____________
U.S. House of Representative
Washington, DC 20510

If you have access to the internet:
Visit the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation website (www.maal.org) to determine who your state legislators and representatives are and learn what issues are up for a vote.

Visit the Humane Society of the United States website (www.hsus.org) then proceed to the Government and Politics section to learn about the bills before Congress.

Learn
Learn all you can about spaying and neutering and why it is so important! Share this information with your friends and family. How about writing a persuasive speech or a report as a class project? Create a brochure to share with your class!

Teach
Teach a class about animal welfare! You could use a variety of ways to convey your message such as music, art, language, drama or science. How about a play about the plight of a lost dog or the pet overpopulation problem?

Raise money
Hold a car wash, collect aluminum cans or hold a bake sale! Proceeds can be donated to the Humane Society of Missouri Cinderella Program to help injured stray or unwanted animals become eligible for adoption or the Foster Program which allows animals that are not yet ready to be placed for adoption the opportunity to grow bigger, heal a wound, receive needed surgery for a special need or any of the other available contribution areas.

Act
Put on a play for your neighborhood or school with permission from those adults (parents and school principal) who will be there to oversee the show. One theme could be "How Does My Family Benefit from Having a Pet?" Create a theme with a message of responsible pet ownership.

Celebrate "Be Kind to Animals" Week
Promote being a responsible pet caregiver by holding events and placing posters for others to see.

Protect the environment
By protecting the environment you are also helping the animals! The following are suggestions which you can make a part of your daily life. The world and animals will benefit from your responsible actions!

• Limit the use of pesticides and care for the trees and vegetation with earth-friendly products.
  
• Keep garbage cans closed, especially if you live in or visit areas in which raccoons also live. Raccoons are often thought of as nuisances and become targets of animal-damage control programs. Sometimes by doing something as simple as keeping the garbage can lid properly closed, it can help to eliminate the problem!
  
• Support companies that care. By choosing dolphin-safe tuna, cruelty-free cosmetics and biodegradable household products, you can directly influence the condition of the environment and help to prevent animal suffering.
  
• Recycle newspapers, cardboard, aluminum, glass and plastics. Allowing them to be used again and again preserves the earth's resources and the lands that wild animals call home.
• Before discarding the plastic rings that hold six-packs of soda together, cut the rings so they can not entrap and suffocate birds and animals.
  
• Walk to decrease the number of times your car is used, but first get permission from the adult in your household. Let them know where you are going and how long you will be gone. Be safe! Use bikes and buses as much as possible. Air pollution isn't good for anyone and roadways take space that could otherwise be used as a habitat for wild animals.
  
• Only watch movies rated acceptable by the American Humane Association. Support productions in which the animal actors were protected from injury or abuse.

Watch and listen for other things you can do to help care for the earth and the living things that can not help themselves. Ask the adults in your life for help and let them know what you are doing as they might have some great suggestions too!

Thank you for your kindness!
Sincerely,
Your Friends at the Humane Society of Missouri