How to Involve Children With Helping Animals

Kids love animals—and there is no shortage of ways for them to help out a local shelter or rescue organization—and at the same time learn responsibility, charity and kindness—while feeling the love in return. Here are some ways for them to help out.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Help your child organize a neighborhood collection drive for a local animal shelter or rescue. They can find out what's on the shelter's "wish list" and hand out flyers asking for donations.
2. Suggest that your child get permission from a teacher or school official to organize a classroom, grade or school-wide collection drive for a local shelter or rescue. They can decorate a big box and place it in the cafeteria or classroom for faculty and students to drop off donations.
3. Help your child organize a fundraising activity such as a bake sale, lemonade stand, or car wash with the proceeds going to a local animal shelter or rescue organization. Enlist the help of relatives, your child's friends and their parents. Your child can also help homeless pets online at Changing The Present (changingthepresent.org). Through this website he or she can sponsor adoptable pets with exams, vaccines, spaying/neutering and microchips or start a fundraising drive (see link in Resources below).
4. Ask local businesses to donate prizes for a community-wide raffle that your child and his or her friends can sell tickets for. Or perhaps the businesses would like to sponsor teams for a community bowl-a-thon or walk-a-thon with the money raised going to an animal shelter or rescue group.
5. Ask guests at your child's birthday party to bring a "pet present" for a local shelter or rescue, along with a gift for the birthday girl or boy. You can even make it a dog and cat-themed party.
6. Find out if a local shelter allows their dogs to have treats. If so, help your child bake dog-friendly treats. Many pet supply stores sell a pre-made mix that you pop in the oven, or there are plenty of recipes for homemade dog biscuits and cookies online. Bringing the dogs treats can be a fun outing for you and your child and maybe some of their friends. If the shelter allows, you can feed the dogs the treats while teaching them to sit. This may be a way to help them get adopted faster.
7. Suggest that your child write a report or do an oral presentation for the classroom on a local shelter. Visit the shelter with them and take pictures of the animals that are awaiting new homes.
8. See if your child would like to start an animal club with other students who are interested in helping homeless pets. They can hang up pictures of animals waiting to be adopted and each club member can sponsor one of the pets. They can also engage in fundraising projects such as designing and selling bookmarks with humane messages. You never know how big the club will grow.
9. Encourage your child to write to local, state, and federal leaders about animal issues they read about or hear about on the news. Help them locate the names and addresses of government officials.
10. Accompany your child each week to donate some time at a local shelter. Most shelters allow kids to clean cages and some let them walk dogs if a parent is present. You can also suggest that your teenager volunteer in the office if they need help.
11. There are a variety of group projects that children can be involved with to help animals in need. For instance, Feb. 7 to Feb. 14 is annual "Have a Heart for Chained Dogs Week" in which valentines are sent to families with chained or penned dogs. Children are invited to make valentines and send them to the organization Dogs Deserve Better, who in turn mails them out to the families (see link in Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• If collecting donations, a child should always be accompanied by a parent.