Lecture in the Óbuda High School

Lecture in the Óbuda High School
2010.04.14.

As the next event of our educational program targeting the propagation of responsible animal keeping, a lecture was organized in the Óbuda High School.

We had the feeling that a long desired dream came true as our lecture was recognized as an official class. The school took the lion share in organizing and preparing the event: the lecture had been advertized for weeks and it was not restricted to the members of one class but any of the students were allowed and encouraged to participate. As the lecture was scheduled in te morning, during class time, students had to ask their teachers for permission to leave, but the teachers did not refuse to grant it. As a result, 60-70 students gathered to listen to us.

The lecture itself went according to the usual schedule. A small documentary was showed to present our work at the shelter. After the documentary a round table discussion took place where we talked about our residents, our main goals, our special programs, and in the meantime we tried to summarize the main issues concerning the animal welfare situation in Hungary.

At the beginning of the lecture we held a little poll, asking who had cats or dogs at home and how many of them are neutered. This discussion provided an excellent oportunity to raise this problem as the results reflected the usual ratios: more than half of the students had a pet at home but only every third of them paid attention to the importance of neutering.

As a nice illustration to the topic, Kis Dani, once a resident of the shelter, walked around free in the classroom. He was, so to say, the guest star of the event. Dani was so kind and was willing and eager to participate in the project, and gave a perfect demonstration of the changes he underwent in the past one and a half year. His story was showed in photos and videos as well, and the students could see how the poor little dog that was hit by a car, spent several days between life and death and then sat in a dark corner in fear and depression, turned into a self-confident, happy, strong and cuddly animal. Dani’s performance was a great success, and after the show he was even surrounded by a crowd of fan girls!

At the end of the lecture the teachers gave us a small package of gifts, full of treats for our dogs.

Both parts considered the lecture successful. Hopefully the attention of many of these students will be more focused on responsible animal keeping and environment protection, and maybe some of them will visit our shelter and even adopt one or two of our residents.