Teenagers have a lot of influence! There are many things that they can do to positively effect their community and the lives of the animals in it. Here are some great ideas:
Add a tagline / signature line to your e-mails so everytime they send an e-mail it will have a message about an animal issue. See this link for suggested lines and instructions for a few different e-mail systems.
Join a local meetup group that has to do with animal rescue, www.meetup.com
Join e-mail lists for animal groups such as:
- APS of Durham
- Humane Teen
- Humane Society of the US
- Dogs Deserve Better
- ASPCA’s Helping Animals Group
Print flyers of some of the APS events or to encourage spay/neuter or adoption and see if local stores/restaurants will let you hang them up. Or see if your parents have a bulletin board at work where they can hang them. Don’t forget to take them down once the event has occurred.
Click every day at www.theanimalrescuesite.com to provide free food & care to animals in shelters. Tell your friends and family members to click every day, too. And remind them – it’s easy to forget.
Use www.goodsearch.com as your search engine (instead of going to yahoo or google). Select APS of Durham under “Who do you goodsearch for?” and click “verify” (or one of the other charities such as AnimalKind, Independent Animal Rescue, etc.)
Help with our presentations to younger kids about pet care, safety, etc. We go to elementary schools and after-school programs and would love to have some help!
Tell EVERYONE you know that there are wonderful pets waiting for a loving home at local shelters. They can sometimes even find a particular pure breed. Most pets are not at shelters because they are bad. Many times their owners just didn’t think about the time and effort needed to take care of a pet before they got one. Or they thought the pet was cute as a puppy or kitten and then didn’t like him/her when he/she got bigger. It’s not the pet’s fault for getting bigger! Or for not behaving well – it’s up to the owners to train them. Pets need direction and some training. They are not born knowing they should go to the bathroom outside or in a litter box, or knowing not to jump on people and chew stuff.
Help at the APS booth we set up at different festivals… Eno Festival, Centerfest, etc. Someone from the club would need to be paired with an experienced shelter volunteer in case people have questions about something specific but we always try to hand out coloring books and stamp the hands of all the kids who come by with a cat or dog stamp.
Join facebook groups and causes where ya’ll can spread the word about adopting from a shelter, spaying/neutering, etc. Does the club focus mostly on pets or all animal issues (like farm animals, zoo animals, etc.)?
Become a fan of APS of Durham!
Here are some facebook causes people can join:
- Animal Rights
- Fight Animal Cruelty
- Stop Puppy Mills
- End Animal Cosmetic Testing
Education Home Page The Education Committee Classroom Presentations Shelter Tours Ways Kids Can Help Ways Teens Can Help Reading List Volunteer to Help the Education Committee
