Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
IT’S easier than you think to draw a horse. Admittedly, it might not get hung in the National Gallery but it’s a recognisable horse.
There are still a few days left of the Easter holidays and if you’re running out of ways to keep children occupied, here’s a few ideas.
Let’s start with how to draw a horse. You can find this out at bluecross.org.uk.
They also show us how to draw a cat, dog and rabbit. Like many other animal charities, although Blue Cross have education programmes for schools, they also have activities children can do at home.
Other activities they provide include pictures to colour, dot to dot puzzles and word games. For a child who likes animals, these would definitely keep them occupied for a morning.
Regular readers might recognise one of the animals featured in the National Animal Welfare Trust’s (NAWT’s) collection of children’s games. Beautiful Zen featured in this column several times before he found a home. In Zen’s puzzle, children navigate their way through a maze to help him find his bed (although, from my knowledge of Zen, he would have preferred help to find food).
Other children’s activities NAWT suggest include designing a home for a pair of rabbits (remember A Hutch is Not Enough) and creating a poster. You can see their ideas at nawt.org.uk.
The RSPCA produce a quarterly children’s magazine, Animal Action, packed with animal rescue and rehoming stories.
It also features puzzles, quizzes, competitions, pet care advice and a behind the scenes look at their centres.
Details of Animal Action, (which costs £7.50 a year) and RSPCA’s children’s activities are available at rspca.org.uk where, for children interested in working with animals when they are older, they also provide information about the different jobs available.
Finally, for young people who want to do some serious photography or filmmaking, the Born Free Foundation is holding its first Youth Wildlife Filmmaker and Photographer of the Year competition. The theme is Hope Springs Eternal.
Their aim is to inspire young people to celebrate nature on their own doorstep through the medium of photography and filmmaking. Born Free is a charity which is passionate about the welfare of wild animals.
The founders include Virginia McKenna and her husband Bill Travers who starred in many wildlife films including the classic Born Free. For details of this fabulous charity and guidelines for their new competition, see bornfree.org.uk. Each award will have an 11 years and under winner and a 16 years and under winner.