Taking care of animals is a life-time commitment process. It required lots of time, patience and responsibilities. Many often bought these cute animals with just a thought of “Awww, this animal is so cute, let’s bring it home.” However, this thought might lead to an irresponsible behaviour. Our children from Little Footprints Preschool (AMK), went to Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) animal management centre in Sungei Tengah Road, to learn about the importance of being a responsible pet owner.
At there, children got to meet some of the animals learned their sad story with their previous owners. Fortunately, they had met someone nice that rescued them and are now under the good care by the team in the animal management centre. When we were there, children were told be extremely gentle and quiet as the animals might feel scared when strangers approached them. The real life interaction with these animals brought up the caring and empathy side of our children. All of them were very gentle to the animals when holding or patting them, they had tried to maintain their noise level to prevent them animals from getting scared.
We also made toys for the animals there, using toilet rolls. During the activity, children learned to tie a double knot and used simple recycled materials to make toys for the animals. It might not be as fancy as the toys in the pet shop, but it did serve the purpose of training the animals to exercise and problem-solve in order to reach for the treats in the toy.
After a fruit trip to the AVA Care Centre, the children came back to school and had a short recap and discussion on what have they learnt at the AVA. They shared about caring for the animals, being responsible to them and that we must not abandon the animals. Great thinking, children!
