Talking to your kids about animal cruelty

Animal cruelty is a terrible thing. Your young ones might come to you with some tough questions about animal cruelty. They might have seen an occurrence of cruelty or they may have seen something about it on TV. For example when the Michael Vick dog fighting information came out I’m sure that more than one kid had some questions.

Boo Boo & Bo

Luckily parents have a great online resource in the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.) In addition to many ideas on how to help your local community help animals there is also a place just for kids called AnimalLand. This site, run by the ASPCA has places where you can go to have questions answered, also there are resources for when you children ask why people abuse animals.

And so you don’t start thinking that the site is all about negative things it certainly is not. There are cartoons with pet tips, activities, information about animal careers and many other things. This will be a nice site to explore with your children especially if they are looking to get a pet. Pet care and responsibility is, in my opinion one of those important things that a child should learn early one so they learn to respect and love animals.

** Photo is of BooBoo & Bo, a brother and sister who survived a trip in the wheel well of a truck. While they are not abused they do need help. You can find out more about them at The BenSpark.