Caring and Sharing With Animals The 4-H Way


 By Alan Oliver
 4-H Program Leader
 C.V.I. Cooperative Extension Service

 Animals and Children. They go so well together we often
 take the relationship for granted. From the time our children are
 born we provide them with stuffed animals, animal designs on
 clothes and stories about bears who like honey, wise old owls
 and very clever mongooses. Certainly a large part of the charm
 of animals is that in the stories and tales that we make up about
 them they mirror and tell us about human nature. More basic
 than that however, is our feeling that the simple needs of these
 creatures, their open responses to our care and their naturalness
 are traits that our children crave in their lives.

 As our children grow up we begin to replace the toys and
stories with real live animals. When we introduce these living
creatures into our lives and homes we also make possible either
positive or negative learning experiences. The positive learning
related to caring for animals takes time, some investment in proper
food and medical attention and a close working relationship
between parent and child. Children are self-centered and need good
examples and guidance about how to care for their pets. When
parents do not work closely with this situation there can be im-
proper feeding, teasing, cruelty, and even death for the animal.

 The positive learning that can come from a close relationship
to animals is very great, however. In a speech given to State 4-H
Leaders in 1979, Dr. James Coleman from the University of
Chicago talked about youth needing animals around them. He
felt that children need the companionship of living things and
they get a high degree of companionship from their animals.

 "Surrounded by living things, children and youth form
attachments to some of these living things, sometimes as pets,
sometimes merely as friends. Why is this important for sociali-
zation? For a single reason: Children need warm close relation-
ships, bonds with others who need them. Yet often they are not
good at establishing relationships, and their parents or other
adults in their environment are not ideal companions. Many
children create imaginary companions to fill this need; for girls,
dolls have helped fill the need as many girls vest their dolls with
real live imaginary personalities. But the need is not well filled
by mere imagination or by non-living things. It is well filled by
living things, animals who are not threatening, not demanding,
but responsive to a child's attention, care, love and warmth, and
tolerant of mistakes."
 These psychological benefits would be enough to justify
our 4-H animal programs. In addition, however, is the fact that
with help from adults, children can learn about nutrition, animal
reproduction, medical care and food production. There are many
life skills that can be learned through animal projects such as
decision making, budgeting, and consumer education -- all can
be built into the child-animal relationship.

 4-H encourages the child and his family to gain these benefits
by taking care of a calf, raising a few chickens or a goat, or taking
care of the family's cat or dog.

 Even more rewards can come when a small group of young-


sters get together under an adult's direction to work on an animal
project cooperatively. Through this process of cooperation and
joint learning, the child is exposed to group commitment. Many of
our young people are not getting the experience of being part of a
close knit small group. The neighborhoods in which they live no
longer function as regulators of behavior or show community
approval or give a sense of security. To replace this lack in neigh-
borhoods, we need to put more emphasis on involving youth in
interest groups like the 4-H club or special interest club.

 Within this group there can be standards of behavior, com-
mitment to others, rewards for success and education for coopera-
tion. Experiences and learning that are derived from the 4-H club
and/or special interest group are among the most crucial for a
child's social adjustment and future success in life.


Children learn responsibility to other creatures by caring for an
animal such as this young 4-H'er and her dairy calf which she
exhibited at the 1980 Agriculture and Food Fair.

 The 4-H club, an educational cooperative in reality, operates
at the neighborhood level and is run by interested parents or adult
volunteers. Children select their projects, animal or other life skills
they wish to learn, and with the help of their leaders and families,
complete them over a course of several weeks or months. A calf
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