PACOIMA : Visit Helps Put Animals in Better Light

Dozens of children capped an unusual summer reading program Wednesday as characters from a favorite children’s story were brought to life.

“Charlotte’s Web,” the familiar tale of a friendly spider, was presented by representatives of a nonprofit animal education program at a Pacoima library.

Sponsored by Wildlife On Wheels, the show was as much an opportunity to dispel the myths about creatures such as spiders and rats as it was a reward for children participating in the eight-week reading program.

“It’s nice because they tell you all about the animals,” said Uriel Perez, 10, of Pacoima, who attended the reading at the Pacoima Public Library on Van Nuys Boulevard. “They’re not all scary or can bite you.”

Perez and about 40 other children and their parents gathered to hear the heroic efforts of Charlotte, the friendly black spider who saved her friend Wilbur the pig from becoming bacon.

Although many of the children had already read the tale, the small crowd was taken by the dramatic retelling of the story by Wildlife on Wheels’ Jessica Torres.

The highlight of the day came at the story’s end, when the children petted a tarantula, a hand-raised rat, a duck and a pygmy goat.

Cinthia Rodriguez, 9, of Pacoima listened intently as Torres talked about “Charlotte” the tarantula, explaining that the hairy spider is too large to create webs to hang from and that its appearance is often worse than its bite, which can still make people ill.

“A tarantula’s mouth is on the bottom,” Rodriguez said. “And it’s not really as poisonous as they tell us.”