There are many activities that your school can do to help animals.  Here are some of our ideas:

Without leaving your school grounds:

Get all the members of your club to pitch in with stories, poems and pictures about animals. The newsletter could focus on issues that you are concerned about such as battery hens or homeless dogs.  Photocopy your newsletter and distribute it to other students in your school. You could even give the newsletter to your local newsagent to hand out free to interested customers.

Choose an animal protection issue that you are concerned about or which has recently appeared in the news. Write to the Editor of your local newspaper and express your views.  Watch and see if you get published. Newspapers are a great way to raise awareness of issues in your local community.

Choose a bland or boring wall in your school grounds or local area. Seek permission to paint a mural on the theme of animal protection. For example, you might paint a picture of possums and birds and a message about why it is important to keep cats indoors at night to protect wildlife. An art teacher or a local artist might help you design the mural. Find out what water-proof materials you need to ensure your mural lasts for a long time. All club members can contribute to the painting and have lots of fun.

Organise an event at your school with guest speakers and student presentations. Invite members of animal groups such as your local shelter and wildlife rescue groups. Students might design the posters, invite the participants and give presentations on why animals need to be protected. Invite parents and your local community for a bigger event and let your local paper know what is happening so they can take pictures and write an article. What a great way to promote your school! 

One of the best ways to help animals is to educate other people.  Bring in a plain, light-coloured t-shirt from home or ask your parents to buy one.  You could also see if the school has Lost and Found t-shirts to use. You can design and create T-shirts that deliver a message about animals such as adopting from shelters, de-sexing, responsible animal care, what to do around stray animals, keeping wild animals wild, caring for farm animals or any other important issue that you feel strongly about.

Think of other t-shirts that you have seen or ads on TV and in magazines.  Think of the colours, funny characters, humour, rhymes etc. You might use permanent ink textas or special fabric paints to put on your design.  When the t-shirts are finished you could display them in the school or have a special day where you wear them to assembly. 

Check with your local animal shelter, wildlife rescue group or animal welfare organisation about inviting a guest speaker to talk to your club, class or entire school about an animal issue you are interested in, the work they do and how people can help. 

Find out how to attract local wildlife to your school by planting native trees, putting up possum and bird boxes in large existing trees, and making bird baths. Your local or state wildlife rescue group will be able to help out with information relevant to your areas’ wildlife. Make educational signs that let other students know why wildlife is so important and precious. Invite students to keep an eye out for wildlife by making a presentation at your school assembly. 

Organise a viewing of an animal-orientated film in a free school classroom during lunchtime. Films such as Babe, Chicken Run, Finding Nemo, Free Willy and Charlottes Web are fun to watch and send positive messages about protecting animals. Before the film is shown, present some information on why the issue is important and how students can make a difference.

Write a song, short story, poem or mini-play about animals. Organise a reading or performance at a school assembly or local event such as a talent night. The whole audience will learn about protecting animals while enjoying the entertainment. Research and write a ‘fact sheet’ to put on everyone’s seat so they understand the message that you are communicating. Remember to take pictures or video!

Research the reasons why animals suffer in circuses and rodeos and prepare some background information. Use your school newsletter, school assemblies and other opportunities to spread the word to other students, teachers and parents.

Choose a day a week or month when you and your fellow students only eat and wear cruelty-free products. Discuss the ways in which your food and clothing affects animals and, together, choose the items that you will not eat or wear on that day. For example, on that day, you might choose to only eat free-range eggs rather than those produced on a battery hen farm or perhaps you could wear canvas shoes rather than leather ones. Let others know in your school what you are doing and why by preparing information flyers.

Let your politicians and local newspapers know how you feel about current topics in animal protection.  Do your research on the issue, whether it is a law that you have heard about or an on-going animal protection issue.  Make sure your letter is polite, clear, factually correct and to the point. Issues might include wildlife being hit on roads, cats attacking wildlife at night, the treatment of farm animals, desexing your dogs and cats, preventing wild animals from being kept as pets or used for entertainment etc.  

The best thing you can do to help animals is to educate other people.  You and your friends might want to research a topic about animals and design a brochure or poster.  Some students might do the research and other might do the art work. This way everyone plays a part! You can hand the brochure out to the other students or to parents.  You could even ask your local shops if they would mind displaying the poster in their window or having the brochure on the counter. 

If your school dissects animals as part of a science class, research alternatives and offer them to the relevant teacher.
The Humane Education Loan Program (HELP) is a free loan program to provide students and educators with up to date alternatives to classroom animal dissection and animal experimentation. Please contact the Australian Association for Humane Research Inc. for further information.

Plan a meeting with the managers of your school cafeteria and discuss the animal protection issues that you are concerned about and how they can help your Club make a difference. For example, they can replace caged-eggs with free-range eggs in sandwiches. They can also offer soy milk drinks and tasty vegetarian meals such as veggie burgers and veggie dogs. Your Club can help make these cafeteria changes a success by preparing informational materials letting students know why these alternatives are being offered.

You could ask questions like:

• When you hear the phrase 'cruelty to animals' what do you think of first?
• Which animals do you think need the most protection in Australia?
• Which animals do you think are suffering the most in Australia?
• Tell me what you know about farming pigs/chickens/cows/sheep?
• Do you know what free range means, and explain?
• Do you know what vegetarianism is, and what do you think of it?
• If you could do one thing to help animals - what would it be?
• Would you like to do activities at school to help animals?
• If yes, what kind of things would you like to do?
• If you could chose, what kind of rewards would you like to be offered to take part in these activities?

According to our roving student reporter, Jonah, students in his school thought that of all animals, koalas needed the most protection. They thought that pigs had a bad reputation for being dirty and stupid and all said that they would love to do activities to help animals in their school.

Put up an Information Table

Grab a card table and set up an information table at a local, high traffic area, such as local markets, library or shopping centre. The Voiceless website as well as other animal organisations can provide you with all the literature you will need. Check with local businesses to see if they mind you setting up nearby and ask your local Council for laws that determine where you can and cannot set-up. This is a great way to practice your communication skills by talking to members of the public. You may also think about asking the people you meet to do something specific like buy free-range eggs or adopt a needy dog from the shelter rather than buying one from a pet-shop.

Instead of asking people to donate money you can ask them to donate equipment for your local shelter or rescue group.  As well as companion animal shelters there are wildlife rescue groups or horse rescue groups that may need help. Check with your local shelter or rescue group to see what supplies and equipment they need.  There is no use donating a brand of dog food that they don’t use.  When you know what shelter you will support and what they need, you can promote the supplies drive by making posters, writing about it for the school newsletter and giving a talk to the school.  You can collect supplies for a few weeks then organise to deliver and present them to the shelter. Contact your local newspaper before you make the delivery as they might send out someone to take pictures and write an article. 

Volunteer at an Animal Shelter

Organise your class to go on an excursion to an animal shelter and help out.  This might involve walking the dogs or cleaning cages. Remember to take pictures. Afterwards you can write an article on what you have done for your school newsletter or local paper. This will help raise awareness about unwanted pets and encourage people to adopt homeless animals rather than buying them from a pet shop.

Ask your local or school library if they will allow you to create a display on animal protection. You can research and write articles, collect pictures and design the display. Remember to display not only the problems but how people can help with solutions.

Organise your class to go to a local park, stream, beach or lake and clean up rubbish. Wildlife can be seriously injured and even killed by rubbish such as plastic rings, bottles, plastic bags and fishing lines. Contact your local newspaper before the excursion as they might send out someone to take pictures and write an article.

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