Camp Field Trips

Camp has been over for a little more than a week now, and I've been reviewing the surveys parents have submitted regarding their child's attendance at HAWS Kids 'n Critters Day Camps. One of the comments that comes up on the surveys from time to time is how we choose the location of the field trips that campers go on in during the week long camps.

Field trips are generally planned and booked in January or February prior to the start of camp. We look for several criteria in our field trips. First of all they need to be animal related -- this is Kids 'n Critters Camp after-all! We look for places that aren't too far from HAWS, and are within the budget that we have set aside for field trips. One of our major criteria is that the message the kids will obtain from the field trip experience matches the message that we are trying to promote at HAWS.

For example -- last year we looked at several facilities and decided against them because the message they promoted wasn't one that HAWS could support. One facility was a petting zoo that bred and raised rabbits in outdoor pens to eventually be butchered for food. Since HAWS sees first-hand the repercussions of the over-population problem of pet rabbits, we promote rabbits as being pets that should be spayed or neutered and for health reasons and their well-being should be housed indoors. While we realize that many people eat rabbit, we felt that we couldn't tell the kids the rabbits they were petting on the field trip were an exception to what we promote, since they would eventually end up as meat. Instead we looked for other field trip alternatives.

Another field trip -- one we actually took this year, was an organization that had a variety of activities for the kids. The exotic bird show was wonderful, the barnyard petting zoo a lot of fun. However, they had an indoor animal area that had a variety of animals. Some of the animals were those that people keep as pets, and animals that HAWS routinely places up for adoption -- such as kittens, rabbits and guinea pigs. What bothered me was that in this same area - side by side with the domesticated pets, they housed wild animals. They had a descented skunk (skunks are illegal to keep as pets in Wisconsin), a baby bobcat, and a monkey -- to name a few.

The facility's staff could have used this as an educational opportunity and explained to the kids that while guinea pigs and rabbits are great pets, bobcats and monkeys are animals that while incredibly cute, are wild animals and will never make appropriate pets. Additionally, since they are wild animals they most likely wouldn't be happy as pets. Zoos with all their staff and resources have a hard enough time doing all they can to ensure their animals get the enrichment, environment and care that they need. Keeping a wild animal as a pet is not humane, and unnecessary considering all the choices we already have in domesticated animals.

The Buddy System

In the past we've always kept two age groups in our camp session -- 7 to 9 and 10 to 13. For the first time this year we've held camps where the ages of the kids ranged from 7 to 13 years of age. The reason for this change is that some of the camps for the older age groups weren't filling and opening it up to the younger age groups allowed us to get more registrations.

I reasoned that because we split the kids into 3 seperate groups anyway, we could easily create different activities for the older kids to do most of the day so that they wouldn't get bored playing the games for younger kids. And for the most part this is exactly how it worked out.

Part of the day the entire group of kids are together -- snack time, lunch, and doing a few activities. One of these times is during a game that the kids play called "Eventful Journey".

Eventful Journey is like a giant game board and the kids themselves are the game pieces. The purpose of the game is to illustrate how difficult migration is for birds -- how they might run into poor weather, hunters or not be able to find food. The kids are assigned a specific space - which is a game card which tells them what their next move is. The game card might tell them to advance to card number 18 because they had favorable weather, or it might tell them that they got caught up in a storm and have to go back to a previous card. Risk cards come into play if they land on a space already being occupied by other "birds".

The advantage of having all the kids play this particular game is that some of the younger kids don't yet have the reading skills to be able to read the cards -- although they are old enough to understand the lesson of the game. We paired the kids up so that each of the younger kids had an older kid as a partner -- with the older camper reading the instructions on the card.

Earlier this week I was hanging out with the older campers and asked them how they felt about camp merging all the age groups -- did they mind having to share camp with 7, 8 and 9 year olds? I was really surprised when I was told that some of them had what they called "little buddies". The older kids had taken it upon themselves to find a younger kid to take under their wing.

While it's my job to provide humane education for the kids that come through our program, many times I'm the one who is educated. Kids will be compassionate and reach out to others if you just give them the opportunity.

Butterflies and Coyote Poop

As camp nears the end and I have less administrative duties, I've been able to spend a little more time with the kids. It always strikes me that there are many opportunities for education when it hasn't been scheduled. One such opportunity came up the other day when I was walking dogs with a group of kids.

I pointed out a couple of beautiful monarch butterflies and one of the kids wondered why there were so many in the field where HAWS volunteers walk dogs. I pointed to the milkweed plants and explained that monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed and that the caterpillars eat only milkweed.

Later on that same walk one of kids noticed a big pile of poop laying on the ground. As I pulled out out a bag ans started to pick it up, I saw another educational opportunity and started to talk about why it's important to pick up after dogs (and was secretely annoyed by the dog walking volunteer who apparently didn't do so), when I noticed that it wasn't dog poop.

The poop was a very dark black and had berry seeds in it -- it was coyote scat. I pointed these features out to the kids (yes, they actually were interested - isn't everyone interested in poop?) and talked about the fact that wildlife biologists use scat in their study of animals. Biologists can tell a lot about an animal through their poop such as their range of territory, health and diet.

All in all it was a good walk.

"Why is it..."

Last week Mystic and I were invited to talk to a group of Girl Scouts about HAWS. I started off giving my usual speech about what HAWS does for Waukesha County and why animals end up there when one of the girls raised her hand with a question.

She asked; "Why is it that pet stores sell their animals for more than animal shelters, but the cages aren't as clean as in a shelter."

I have to say I had a really good feeling when I heard this questions. First of all, HAWS kennel staff do an extremely good job ensuring that the animals are kept in very clean cages -- it's a on-going effort throughout the day. Secondly, it was a recognition by a kid that pet stores generally do charge more for their animals than what an animal shelter charges in adoption fees. And lastly - it was question that in all my 7 years on the job I'd never heard before. I like getting unique questions!

Honestly I can't speak to the cleanliness aspect of the question since I so very rarely frequent pet stores that sell animals. I have seen pet stores with very clean cages, but I've also heard stories from other people about pet stores with caging that was so filthy as to be inhumane.

As far as our adoption fees being lower I do have an explanation. Pet stores are in business to make money. They are a business and it would be bad business to sell something for less than you can get for it. This may also account for the fact that some pet stores can't keep up with the cleanliness of the caging -- they may not be able to afford to have enough staff on hand to constantly clean the cages throughout the day and still be able to make a profit.

HAWS is a non-profit organization with a mission to find good homes for our animals. We don't need to make a profit on our adoptions -- and actually we lose money on every animal we adopt out since we spend way more on veterinary care, medication, food, kennel staff to care for the animals and other supplies than we make on our adoption fees. And this is why we rely so greatly on the public to donate supplies and money so that we can continue to do the work we do.

And thanks to the Girl Scouts -- many of the troops donate both items from our wish list and money to help us with our mission.

Visiting Llamas

One of the benefits of having a camp at an animal shelter is being able to give the children experiences with animals that might be new to them. We do this with all the animals that end up in the shelter, but occasionally we are able to bring in animals that usually don't end up in shelters.

Mark and Kathy Harder own a llama farm out in the Watertown area and for many years have been kind enough to bring a llama or two to HAWS Kids 'N Critters Day camp to teach the kids about llama behavior, what kind of pets they make, and allow the children to get up close and personal with the animals. This is definately a first time experience for many of the kids attending camp.

I learn a little something about llamas every time the Harder's visit. Llamas really aren't expensive to keep - one llama cost no more than having a medium to large dog. They are very clean animals and most of the time prefer to eliminate in the same areas -- which means that the floor is clean after the llama leaves. In many places they use llamas as guardian animals with other livestock since llamas are very assertive and will attack predators.

The new piece of information I learned on this visit is that llamas like to sniff new people during their greeting. And Addy did exactly that on Monday when the kids were coming up to say "hi" and give her a little bit of attention. Apparently Addy felt that the kids were ok because she felt no urge to spit at them. And the kids really liked meeting her as well.

In Tribute to an Education Snake

Sadly HAWS education snake, Severus, died over the weekend. It wasn't unexpected -- she was surrendered to us in 2007 and the previous owners told us she was 25 at the time; that would have made her almost 29 years old at the time of her death. With a California King Snake's life expectancy being between 20 and 30 years, it turns out she lived to a ripe old age.

We didn't know Severus was a "she" until last year when she was experiencing some gastrointestinal distress and we had her visit Dr. Kevin Ruch at Elmbrook Veterinary Clinic. Dr. Ruch is a specialist in reptile medicine and he did a great job caring for her, and identified her as a female.

Severus was the perfection education animal. She was content to be left alone, and happy to be brought out and handled as well. Because most kids haven't ever held a snake, she gave the kids in our education programs a new experience. And it was fun to see the kids start out repulsed and then come to think she was really cool.

Now that she's sunning herself on the snake rock in the sky Severus will be missed here at HAWS, and we are thankful for the almost 4 years of service she was able to contribute.

Good News, Bad News

HAWS has been in the news twice within the last two weeks.

The first news story was a great one about our camp -- it's the video posted above. Fox 6 Milwauke did a fantastic job showing what our Kids 'N Critters Camp is all about -- what we're trying to teach the kids, what kinds of things they do at our camps, and how much fun they have.

The latest news story wasn't so pleasant - a woman was attacked by her own two dogs while attempting to breakup a dog in the backyard of her home and had to take a ride on flight for life to the hospital. Police officers shot one of the dogs as it attempted to climb over the fence at them. Unfortuantely the dogs were pit bulls.

I say unfortunately because every time a pit bull hits the news it's another mark against the breed. Not all pit bulls are aggressive dogs -- as a matter of fact the majority that I've met are very loving with friendly temperaments towards people. But those don't make the news, and stories like this make it difficult for dogs from bully breed dogs with good temperaments to find homes when they are in need of adoption.

HAWS made the news in this story because we are the animal control facility that came and picked up the other dog. Our Operations Manager -- Mark Hess had to use a tranquilizer dart in order to safely get the dog into his custody.

The dog is here at HAWS undergoing a quarantine for rabies -- her future is not entirely certain at this point. She's in a kennel looking like anything but a vicious dog -- she's very sad, stressed and a bit afraid. HAWS refused to let the media get footage of her since there was a concern that would increase her stress level - instead we released some still photos one of our staff shot instead.

Here's a link to the news coverage:
http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20110629-pitbull-attack-followup-story,0,3622188.story