Teachers Use Animals to Teach Children Nonviolence

When educator Kelly Campbell goes to work in the morning, she takes along the usual items: crayons, picture books, charts.

And something else--a puppy.

The cuddly young dog is essential to Campbell’s lesson. In an all too violent world, she tries to teach young children nonviolence.

Stressing that the puppy romping on the kids’ laps has body parts and emotions similar to humans’, Campbell, who works for the Animal Rescue League of Pittsburgh, is part of a growing nationwide effort using pets to try to break a cycle of violence in some children.

“Kids never say, ‘What do you want to do today? Let’s kill somebody.’ They start with something smaller and work their way up. They start with little, innocent, furry creatures,” she says.

“I’m trying to make kids aware that violence is wrong, that it hurts the animal and that there’s an alternative.”

Several studies in recent years have linked childhood abuse of animals with later violence toward people.

Michael Kaufmann of the American Humane Assn. said that for years severe abuse of animals--”when a cat got doused with gasoline or a horse was shot”--was often considered a childhood prank. Instead, it should be seriously addressed, he said, “because that behavior doesn’t go away--it escalates.”

Abusing animals appears to be a significant flag of antisocial behavior, according to a 1997 study by Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The three-year study found that people who abused animals were five times more likely than others to have a criminal record and four times more likely to have a record of violent crime.

An FBI study of imprisoned serial sexual murderers found that 36% had abused animals during childhood and 46% in adolescence.

Frank Ascione, a psychology professor at Utah State University, also has linked animal cruelty to violence against people.

“We all go through a developmental phase of not treating animals the way we should,” he said. “Most children go through it by preschool age and quit sometime by grade school. But the children who don’t stop are the ones that are problematic.”

Humane educators are now finding that the best programs target children who have been abused or who have shown tendencies to abuse animals or other children. The programs need to be long-term, Ascione said.

A few programs across the country have pioneered in-depth humane education involving animals.

At seven schools for troubled children in Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, the Devereux Foundation, based in Villanova, Pa., has built zoos stocked with small animals. Kids from 9 to 18 spend at least 2 1/2 hours a week with one animal to learn responsibility and nurturing.

Dr. Aaron Katcher, the foundation’s consultant who started the zoos in 1990, said most children change immediately when around animals. But he said children need to be in the program at least six months for the behavioral changes to carry over to activities not involving animals.

“We expected many of them to be aggressive, but they weren’t. They were very careful and devoted to their animals, arriving early to change bedding and clean cages, for instance,” he said. “Within six months . . . it improved their behavior.”

Katcher said the center has had great success--more than 90%--with children younger than 14. But the success rate drops with older children.

“If children are over 14, there are some we can’t reach. Some children get streetwise and hardened at that age,” he said.

In Brewster, N.Y., a treatment center offers a residential and day program for severely abused children ages 6 to 21. The center, Green Chimneys, is on a 150-acre farm with 380 animals, many of which were also abused, neglected or abandoned.

About 140 children at a time learn “how to touch lovingly, how to nurture, how to be responsible” with the help of a team of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, special education teachers and animal trainers, said the center’s Lisette Kubie.

Each dormitory has a resident house dog. “The animal is a bridge, a tool to build trust,” Kubie said.

In Minneapolis, a 12-week program called Minnesota Link, to be launched in September by the American Humane Assn., will combine mental health therapists with dog obedience trainers. About 12 youths who have been in trouble will train dogs needing adoption.

“It’s backdoor therapy,” said psychologist Molly DeTrekel.

Using animals in humane education was in vogue decades ago but was eclipsed by drug therapy in the past few decades, “when we thought we were going to cure everything, and we didn’t,” Katcher said.

Katcher and other humane educators say animals do for some children what adults never can: Grab their attention and give them a sense of learning about reality.

“No child ever feels that feeding an animal is unimportant,” he said.

In a first-grade class in one of Pittsburgh’s poorest neighborhoods, Campbell teaches the children how to handle animals, how to take care of them and how to “act like a turtle” if a dog attacks.

Classroom teacher Lauren Carozzi likes what she sees.

“Animals are the No. 1 topic in the world for 6-year-olds, and there’s so many things you can teach through them,” she says. “If only one or two kids take a little bit away from this, then it was worth it.”