World Animal Day 2013 – a school visit!

Education on wildlife conservation and animal welfare

On October 3rd 2013, our founder Edwin Wiek visited the Regent’s School in Pattaya, although October 4th is actually world Animal Day, Edwin had to visit the school a day earlier due to the big MEETING ON IVORY TRADE on the morning of the 4th of October at the Thai ministry of natural resources and the MARCH FOR ELEPHANTS later that day in bangkok.

Invited by Miss Emily Kay, a teacher at the Regent’s and a long term supporter of WFFT, Edwin was asked to do a few presentations to the kids on animal welfare and wildlife conservation. The first classes attending were about 100 children between 6 and 8, that had a great time looking at the photos of so many cute and dangerous wildlife. The kids loved especially the monkeys and gibbons. Before the presentation started Edwin asked how many kids would love to have a wild animal as a pet, with 30 sticking up their hand. It was good to see that more then half of these children told Edwin after the presentation that they felt sorry for wild animals to be pets and they would no longer want one. Job well done!

The second class was a group of about 200 kids, a bit older. Again this group was very interested with a few kids that asked great questions. We would be surprised if some of them later in life will not be successful biologists or zoologists! They were very sharp! Due to the late arrival of another speaker that day Edwin took one more class in the afternoon, a group of 400 students from 15-17 years old. Here the presentation ended in a lively questionnaire, with some very good questions and remarks made by the kids.

Edwin finished this day with a good feeling about world animal day and the future of animals and wildlife, it seems that many kids really care about animals, their welfare and the conservation of endangered species. We hope the expertise and his side of the story has made the kids think even more about the protection of wildlife, that it made a difference.