[ SHOWGSD-L ] countering the ARista agenda in elementary school kids
- From: "L. Hartten" <hartten@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: thelist <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Edwin Hill <edwinx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:48:43 -0700
Hi Listers, (with a CC to Flower Boy, since this is up his alley)
My daughter, Kate, is almost 10 (4th grade). She comes from strong
meat-eating traditions on both sides of her family (you can take her
father's kielbasa if you pry it from his cold dead hands ...), has grown
up with pets (dogs, cats, wooly bear caterpillars, crickets until the
cats got them), and has been exposed to various working, recreational,
and agricultural aspects of human/animal interactions all her life.
I've also had some discussions with her about the need to be careful
donating to animal charities, because some don't love animals so much as
hate humans and want to prohibit all pets.
She is now being exposed to some influential vegetarians: her teacher,
one of her close friends, and a 5th grade girl on an academic team with
her. (I have given the close friend and her mother a bit of an
education regarding "responsible breeders", since they are of the "we
love animals but would only consider getting ours from the pound"
variety. I think I opened some eyes on that one when I talked about
selecting breeding pairs, buyer contracts, lifetime rehoming.) The
teacher may be vegetarian out of philosophical concern over the best way
to feed the planet; the girls seem to be of the "don't hurt animals,
they're cute" and "meat isn't good for you" mindset, although I know the
one friend comes from a family that buys some of the AR agenda.
(Wouldn't they be surprised to find what the ARistas thought of their
beloved horseback riding!)
Two weeks ago, while we were preparing breakfast, Kate expressed an
interest in becoming vegetarian. She said she'd be willing to "get all
[her ]protein from nuts". My response was to tell her that that was
certainly something she could choose to do when she was older, but that
I wasn't in a position to run a vegetarian household. (Mean, Nasty
Mommy!) Then I sent my ex-husband a quick email entitled "heads up -
meat". His reply was priceless: "From your title I assumed you were
alerting me to the recent meat recall! This is worse!"
Anyway, today I found out that another 4th grade friend has recently
expressed a desire for meatless lunches. I think it's time to get on
the stick before too many of these well-meaning, generous-hearted girls
get sucked in further by the AR camp. Who could give me pointers
towards well-written and well-reasoned documents that (1) lay out the
full (anti-human, anti-pet) PETA and/or HSUS agenda or (2) counter
claims that it's not nice or not healthy to eat meat? Preferably on an
upper elementary school or middle school reading/maturity level.
AND, for bonus points, what are some good books showing healthy,
respectful bonds and interdependence between people & animals, again for
the 10-12 year old set? I have noticed that a lot of the animal books
that Kate & her friends read come with a subtext: that animals are cute
and helpless/in trouble and need people to rescue them. I'm starting to
view many of them as a sort of animal soft-porn, setups for the
teenaged/young adult bodice rippers (where the girl/woman is beautiful
and in trouble and needs a man to rescue her).
Thanks in advance for suggestions!
Cheers,
Leslie
--
Leslie M. Hartten web: http://spot.colorado.edu/~hartten
Indi (TerraNorte's Midnight Indigo, German Shepherd Dog) & Brittany
(Upland Sweet Baker, English Setter)
--
Disclaimer: The contents of this message are mine personally and do not
necessarily reflect any position of the Government of the United States
of America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or the
University of Colorado.
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