Help insects inside your home get outside to their homes. Keep a bug release kit handy. All you need is a see-through glass with a wide opening and a stiff piece of cardboard. Wait until the insect is resting and put the glass over him. Be careful you don’t catch his little legs or wings. Gently slide the cardboard under him. Eventually you will get the bug in the glass and then you can release him outside where he belongs and where he would rather be.
Animal cruelty is when someone hurts an animal or does not care for an animal responsibly, like not giving a dog or cat food and water. Sometimes it is simply that people do not understand that what they are doing to an animal is causing the animal pain. Other times, people who have been hurt themselves will be cruel to animals because they think that is the only way to treat others.
If you see someone hurting an animal, or know of an animal who looks sick, injured or does not have food, water or shelter, you can do something about it. Tell an adult you trust and together you can call your local animal shelter.
It is easy to have burgers, hotdogs, pizza and other foods that are not made of dead animals, they are made of plants and taste really good!
You can get really tasty, meat-free burgers, braai sausage, hotdogs, crumbed nuggets, ‘chicken-style’ pop’s, polony and more from the frozen section at your local big store!
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Vegetarians (who eat no cows, sheep or pigs, chicken, duck or any other birds or fish, shellfish, calamari etc) and vegans (who also don’t eat dairy or eggs ) are usually much healthier. Plenty of places offer vegetarian/vegan burgers and other choices, so you won’t feel left out, and actually, vegans usually eat more exciting food as well! Pizza without cheese is just as good when you add avocado instead!
Parents often say that you must have respect for other people. Animals want humans to keep a little distance, that’s precisely what the word “respect” means. Many animals don’t want to be picked up or cuddled. Some animals, like dogs and cats appreciate a lot of attention; other animals like wild animals, birds and fish just want to be left alone. There is not a single animal who wants to be locked away in a small cage. Not birds, hamsters, mice, rabbits, or guinea pigs. Respecting animals means that you won’t do something like that. But if you do have an animal or bird in a cage at home, you cannot let them free now! They depend on you to care for them, for the rest of their lives!
We prefer to call animals he or she, not it. We are taught that animals are ‘it’ at school but that cars and ships are ‘she’, which is just silly! This is a habit to break. A table or chair or car is an object. Animals are, like us, subjects. Therefore we should call them he or she.
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Circus animals have to depend on humans to feed and take care of them. If they were to choose, animals would never live in a cage at all and they would never do tricks. Why should they? Animals don’t want to earn money or receive applause. Children also depend upon adults and have to go to school to learn. The major difference between children and animals is that children get the freedom to choose for themselves once they’ve become adults, but circus animals never will.
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Wild animals, like lions, elephants, camels and even snakes should be where they belong, with their families, in the wild. Keeping them caged isn’t fair. Don’t you agree? You can help, by telling your parents that you do not want to go to a circus that has animals in it. It is cruel to force animals to live in a cage their whole life, and to do tricks. There are circuses that do NOT have animals, that are as much, if not more, fun!
Did you know that medicines and some of the shampoos, soaps and other products your mom or dad might use to clean the house are tried out on tiny mice, rats, rabbits or other animals to see if the animals get hurt when eating or touching the products? Animals either die during the tests from being fed too much medicine or soap, or they are killed after the tests. Some people think that it’s a good idea to test on animals; others, like us, say that it’s wrong. There are other ways to test products. We can even use computers to find out if a medicine or shampoo will hurt us.
You or your mom or dad can find our free list of products that are very safe and have not been tested on animals, right here on the Beauty Without Cruelty website at www.bwcsa.co.za/humane-guide
There are cleaners and soaps and shampoos and sunblock, toothpaste and insect repellent and lots more, that have been tested with computers or other ways, where no one was hurt at all!
Some people call hunting a sport, but a sport is an activity that involves people who want to play. Some people think hunting is great fun, but how can it be fun to kill an animal? Hunters say that they play an important role in keeping animal populations down or that it is to protect their sheep. This isn’t so. Most species of animals have more babies when there’s plenty of food and less babies when there isn’t. And often they have more babies when they are being killed off, to keep the numbers up. So it’s never ending! It’s been found that in places where hunting is legal, populations grow faster than in places where hunting isn’t allowed. Hunters impact the eco-system.
In nature, weak, old and injured animals usually die off first and the strongest survive. Hunters on the other hand, usually kill the biggest, healthiest and strongest and that is bad for all the animals. Some hunters are not very responsible. They may shoot an animal and not kill him and then not to follow him, and so these animals die terrible deaths.
Have you ever caught your finger in a door, or other small space and it hurt so much? Some farmers use traps that hurt the animal and cause terrible suffering, and traps catch all sorts of animals, even birds, dogs and cats. They can’t get away until the farmer or hunter comes, and some animals are mothers who have babies waiting for her to feed them.
If someone you know hunts, try to persuade them to hunt with a camera instead. Animals “shot” with a camera can still go home at night to take care of their babies.
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Leave bugs alone. Each has a place in the environment. Insects are fascinating. Try to imagine yourself in a bug’s place. Help insects if you get a chance. Prop a twig or two in a birdbath so insects falling in can climb out.
Help insects inside your home get outside to their homes. Keep a bug release kit handy. All you need is a see-through glass with a wide opening and a stiff piece of cardboard. Wait until the insect is resting and put the glass over him. Be careful you don’t catch his little legs or wings. Gently slide the cardboard under him. Eventually you will get the bug in the glass and then you can release him outside where he belongs and where he would rather be.
If you make sure that food is kept in sealed containers and wipe up crumbs, this will help.
There are other ways to discourage them too:
- Always look in the bath before you turn on the water. Use your bug release kit to rescue spiders who may be resting there.
- Never throw an insect in the toilet. Cockroaches and ants come into our houses because they are hungry.
- Wash counter tops, cabinets and floors with a solution of l/2 vinegar and l/2 water. Ants hate the smell of it.
- Place whole bay leaves around the kitchen. Cockroaches hate the way they smell. You’ll have to change them every month or so.
- Pour a line of cream of tartar that you get from the supermarket at the ants’ entrance. They won’t cross over it.
If you want to kill an insect, think very hard about whether the insect is going to hurt you or your animals, or whether the insect just looks scary. Respect the right of small creatures to live their short lives without being handled or moved from their homes by people. Spraying insecticides in your home may not be healthy for you or your companion animals. Insecticides will also kill the “good” bugs like spiders that help control bugs like mosquitoes.
This link will take you to a page of famous vegans and vegetarians, including Albert Einstein, Da Vinci, Brandy, Toby McGuire (Spiderman), Brad Pitt and many more! Just hit the back arrow at the top left of your screen / back button, to come back here.
Ask your parents about perhaps getting a copy of this book for you to read. (Ages 8 years and up)
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So meet Caw the Crow – the most brilliant of all birds (as he keeps reminding us). He tells us the story of his great friend, Humphrey the Hereford, from the time he was a calf until… Well, that’s for you to find out. Caw’s tale is suitable for children, teenagers and even adults as they are led into a world they’ve never experienced before. And when you read it, you will laugh, you will cry, you will never see animals in the same way again.
For book sales, please contact Stephen: vitruvian@hotmail.com or Sally: sally_adam@hotmail.com. R125.00 plus R25 post and packing. Or get it from your local Readers Warehouse!
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