Humane Education for Children

I loved Claire Tillman’s presentation on humane education. Her approach to it was very cool because she treated us as though we were one of her elementary school classes so we could get a feel for how she actually goes about humane education for children. After seeing the images she shows them, I can imagine how much her presentations might affect them because I’m 21 years old and two days later I’m still haunted by those pictures and stories. The part that really haunts me the most though is when she told us that every single serial killer has started off by abusing animals. Obviously not all people who abuse animals become serial killers, but it can definitely be said that people who abuse animals are walking down a dangerous path. The dogfighting article we had to read for class from Anthology 1 talks about how men get involved in dogfighting and why. It says that in American, qualities that men consider a part of masculinity are assertiveness, aggressiveness, strength, and competitiveness. Men partake in dogfighting because it is a way to show off how competitive and aggressive they can be through using a dog to represent them. Teenage boys, or even adults, think lighting cats on fire and throwing rocks at dogs is cool because it shows their assertive power over the animal and the aggression they can put out. This makes me wonder, if society didn’t consider these qualities so admirable, would there be less abuse in the world? If manliness meant showing respect, having wisdom, setting a good example, what reason would they have to harm animals? I guess that’s why it’s so important to teach children about this stuff because they’re the future society; they’re the only way to change what’s cool and what’s not.