PETA

      ====It’s super-easy to get active for animals at any age. In fact, there are tons of things that you can do to help that don’t require much cash—just your time and energy. Here are a few ideas to get you started. ====

====The best thing you can do to help animals is to stop eating them! For some great tips on how you can save lives, help the environment, and improve your health by cutting animals out of your diet, check out all the info **[|here] **. ====

====Chances are that your local animal shelter can probably use your help, so give ’em a call! You may be too young to volunteer, but you’re never too young to have a fundraiser or a drive to collect supplies. ====

====Does your school have a student-choice policy allowing students the right to refuse to **[|dissect] **? Are there animals being held hostage at your school, commonly known as “classroom pets” or “hatching experiments”? Do your teachers plan yearly field trips to the zoo or the **[|circus] **? It’s your school, too, and that means that your voice counts, so speak up and let your teachers know that there are alternatives to animal**[|exploitation] **. And don’t forget to recruit your classmates to help you tackle these issues! ====

====Educate others! Use animal issues as topics for all your school projects. From book reports to posters in art class—we’ve got you **<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; color: #333399; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 9pt; padding-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;">[|covered] **. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Letter-writing is one of the best things you can do to help, so get that pen and paper—or computer keyboard—ready! Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper about animal rights issues. Scan the newspaper for upcoming events, issues, or “**<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; color: #333399; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 9pt; padding-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;">[|free to a good home] **” ads, and fire off a letter to give the animals’ side of the story. For instance, when the circus is coming to town, let the public know what really happens under the big top, and urge readers to boycott animal **<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; color: #333399; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 9pt; padding-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;">[|circuses] **. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Grab some friends or your siblings and set up a literature table in the mall, outside a store, or at the local library (get permission from the “powers that be” first—that means Mom and Dad and the mall office!) and distribute PETA **<span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; color: #333399; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 9pt; padding-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;">[|literature] **. Or gather some friends together and leaflet around town. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">We’re always looking for new ways to make a difference for our animal friends, so drop us a line and let us know what you’re doing so that we can pass it on. And please, be sure to include pix of you in action, ’cause you may just find yourself featured on PETAKids.com! ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 12pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An estimated 25 percent of teachers keep animals as "pets" in classrooms. Many teachers bring animals into their classrooms with good intentions, like wanting to teach you and your classmates **<span style="color: #333399; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">[|responsibility] ** or teach you about the animals themselves. However, rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs, frogs, snakes, **<span style="color: #333399; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">[|fish] **, and**<span style="color: #333399; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">[|other animals] ** used as teaching "tools" are too often abused and neglected. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The following cases, which involve the abuse of animals in U.S. schools, were reported to PETA: ** ====

[[image:http://www.petakids.com/images/AnimalsInClassrooms.jpg width="225" height="275" align="left" caption="Should Animals Be Kept in Classrooms?"]]
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ever wonder what happens to your class "pet" on the weekends? What if a fire broke out? This would be deadly to an animal left alone in a classroom. And when the school year ends, these animals frequently end up in already-crowded**<span style="color: #333399; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">[|shelters] ** or at the homes of students who may not have the means or the knowledge to **<span style="color: #333399; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">[|care for them] **. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Class "pets" can also cause serious health risks to you! **Hamsters can transmit diseases, and you can get salmonella poisoning from handling reptiles. Do you suffer from asthma or allergies? If you do, you could be badly affected by some types of animals in your classroom. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If your school is keeping animals—either as "pets" or as teaching "tools"—talk to the teacher, the administrator, and if necessary, the school board. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ask your school board to ban the use of animals in classrooms, for your safety and the safety of the animals. ** ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You can learn about responsibility and animal behavior without the presence of animals in your classroom. There are far more constructive ways, like visiting an animal sanctuary, to learn about living beings than by holding them captive in hazardous and neglectful school environments. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Remember: The only teacher's pet in your classroom should be you! **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ** ====<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">**Every day in countries around the world, animals are fighting for their lives. They are enslaved, beaten, and kept in chains to make them perform for humans' "entertainment"; they are mutilated and confined to tiny cages so that we can kill them and eat them; they are burned, blinded, poisoned, and cut up alive in the name of "science"; they are electrocuted, strangled, and skinned alive so that people can parade around in their coats; and worse.** ====

====<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 12px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The abuse that animals suffer at human hands is heartbreaking, sickening, and infuriating. It's even more so when we realize that the everyday choices we make—such as what we eat for lunch and the kind of shampoo we buy—may be directly supporting some of this abuse. But as hard as it is to think about, we can't stop animals' suffering if we simply look the other way and pretend it isn't happening. ==== ====<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 12px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Animals are counting on compassionate people like you to give them a voice and be their heroes by learning about the issues they face and taking action. Each of us has the power to save animals from nightmarish suffering-and best of all, it's easier than you might think. If you're ready to join the millions of other compassionate people who are working to create a kinder, better world for animals, please read on to learn how animals suffer in the <span style="color: #003366; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|food], <span style="color: #003366; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|animal experimentation] ,<span style="color: #003366; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|entertainment] , <span style="color: #003366; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|clothing] and <span style="color: #003366; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|pet-trade] industries. Together, we can make a difference. ====