Children can "TAKE A STAND" for our animals


 I wanted to share an idea that my son's elementary teacher  and classmates are
 involved with for both educational purposes and to benefit our animals.


Locally there is an animal control/pound that is selling dogs to an animal "B"
 dealer, who then sells the dogs for large profit to medical research. For those of
 you who do not know, this is called "Pound Seizure".  Pet dogs, such as "drop
offs" and strays are the victims in this particular county.

 Many concerned citizens and animal advocates have been trying to convince St.
 Joe County (MI) board members and the pound to stop selling the dogs to
 research. However they refuse to listen and they continue to sell the dogs after
 voting against what the citizens ask them to do.

 I brought this to the attention of my son's 5th grade teacher. She was both very
 surprised and concerned, and immediately agreed to have the children
 participate in letter writing about this particular issue. She shared this with
 another teacher who is now participating. After assisting her to get information
and facts on this issue, the children will soon be doing a project called " Taking
  a Stand". They will write letters to each county board member and the pound
  director to voice their opinion. In addition, I will send a copy of each letter to our
politicians. I also notified our news reporter who originally covered the pound
issue here, and she is very interested in covering this project involving the
children participating.


Please participate and share this idea with friends, family and parents so they
  can suggest this to teachers. Only 14 states have outlawed pound seizure:
Maine,
New Hampshire,
Vermont,
Massachusetts,
Connecticut,
Rhode Island,
New York,
New Jersey,
Delaware,
Pennsylvania,
Maryland,
West Virginia,
South Carolina, and
Hawaii
The rest have pounds that continue to  sell dogs and/or cats to research.

 It is my belief that we need to have our children become more active in animal
 issues as part of their education, and I feel that citizens, politicians, authorities
 and the media will pay more attention to animal issues when they see that our
 children are involved.  But we need to help our young children by encouraging
them to do this and to let them know that is it their right to do so. We also need
 to speak up to their teachers about this. You will want to include facts and references from
these educational sites regarding animals used in research to help the children
understand why animals are not necessary for research.

                        Thank-you,

                        Lisa Marie (myREBAdog@worldnet.att.net)