CHILDREN AND ANIMALS
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:
Shakira Hemphill, Michael Mims, Robert Ronnell Jones, and LaTroy Eugene Murphy, all of
Abram Simon Elementary School in Washington D.C., on April 29 shared the American Humane Association’s first-
ever Be Kind To Animals Kid Award for their part in bringing to justice an off-duty police officer whom they witnessed in
the act of severely beating a dog. All four witnessed the beating on May 2, 1992. Jones, a third grader at the time,
approached the man and demanded an explanation. As the abuse continued, he ran up and down the street to keep an
eye on the dog, whom the man eventually dragged into an alley, while the others called the Washington Humane
Society. All four then pointed the abuser out to the WHS cruelty officer who responded to their call. The dog was
impounded, but was returned to the owner on June 15, who claimed to have given her away one week later. A grand
jury declined to indict, leaving any punitive action up to the Washington D.C. police department division of internal
affairs. As the nominating shelter for the AHA award winners, WHS received $1,000 worth of dog food from Advanced
Nutrition Cycle.
Sixth graders in 40 New England, New York,
and Florida elementary schools counted roadkills in their
neighborhoods for six months during the past year as part of
a computerized information exchange project sponsored by
the National Science Foundation. The students collected
more roadkill data than all previous studies of the subject
combined––and the project will go nationwide during the
next school year. Watch for more extensive coverage in
upcoming issues of ANIMAL PEOPLE, along with survey
forms for our own four-season roadkill count, which will
formally commence in July with the cooperation of Country
Life. In combination with the NSF data, the ANIMAL
PEOPLE count will produce the first definitive national
data base on roadkills, a first step toward developing effec-
tive prevention programs.
Katherine C. Grier examines the emergence of
kindness toward animals as a theme in the evolution of fam-
ily structure and child-rearing during the Victorian era in
Between The Species volume 8, #4, available for $5.00
from P.O. Box 254, Berkeley, CA 94701. As Grier docu-
ments, kindness became not only an ideal, but also a sym-
bol of belonging to the middle class rather than the rabble.
KIND News, the humane education newspaper of
the Humane Society of the U.S., will add an edition for stu-
dents in the primary grades (K-1) this fall, and a Spanish
version of the primary edition, to be called KIND News
Internacional. HSUS already publishes KIND News Jr. and
Sr. editions , for students in grades 2-4 and 5-6, but only in
English. Get further details from P.O. Box 362, East
Haddam, CT 06423-0362.
Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey
will offer biology students an alternative to dissection next
term as result of a year-long campaign by graduating senior
Jen Michel, 18. The alternative program, expected to
involve 18 to 20 hours of work, may be the first of its kind
in the state.
The Student Earth Action League at California
University of Pennsylvania recently organized an open
forum on dissection alternatives, purportedly at the sugges-
tion of the university president. “Guess who did not show
up,” wrote humane officer Kathy Hecker of Animal Friends
Inc. in nearby Pittsburgh. “Not one dean, not one science
professor, and not even the university president.” The event
did, however, draw local press coverage.
