Paw patrol: Making a difference in your own backyard
Volunteers at the Union County Animal Protection Society began making a long-held dream a reality earlier this year when they established the Paw Patrol child education program at the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado’s Wetherington Unit.
For years, UCAPS Board members and volunteers have spoken longingly of building an avenue to teach children about responsible pet ownership, respect for furry friends and community animal management. When the UCAPS Adoption Center at 727 E. Main opened on Jan. 6, 2020, volunteers planned to hold regular education events; however, plans were put on hold the following month when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
Now that cases have started to wane, UCAPS volunteer Denise Holt is making monthly visits to the BGCE’s Wetherington Unit on Center Street, where she’s leading children in the center’s afterschool program through a workbook that details animal care.
“The first day… they did a kindness pledge,” Holt said. “The kindness pledge says ‘I pledge to be kind to all animals in my house and in my community. For animals in my home, I will make sure they have fresh food and water every day. I promise to spend time with them playing or just being together every day.’
So they signed it and we refer back to it every time.”
Children in the BGCE’s after-school programs range in age. Terra Walker, UCAPS Board president, said Holt has been working with children as young as 5 in the program on up to 12 or 13 year-olds.
Holt teaches science and social studies to fifth-graders in Parkers Chapel, so working with children isn’t a new challenge for her.
“It’s been awesome. I’m a teacher, so of course I love working with children, and being able to talk to them and teach them about the importance
of pet responsibility, spaying and neutering, making sure pets have a safe place to stay with fresh water and food — it’s just been a blessing to me,” she said.
One of Holt’s favorite parts of the program is introducing the children at the BGCE to an animal during each visit.
“Both times we’ve taken a pet from UCAPS and they have just loved it. They want to tell us all about their pets, what their grandparents have,” she laughed.
“The children can interact with an animal and we show them how to approach a dog, pet a dog and then have some fun with that,” Walker said.
Holt said she’s taken care to bring animals that are comfortable around children.
“We want a dog that won’t be aggressive or scared. We’ve got some cats I’ve been looking at that might be a good fit to take, too,” she said. “The dog I took last time — when we got her in, it was apparent that she’s had puppies… They asked if she was pregnant and I explained that she has had puppies.”
Conversations like those with the children help segue into discussions about caring for animals in the community more broadly.
“The first day, I start out by saying the most important thing you can do is spay and neuter your pet,” Holt said. “I asked them what they think (the most important thing is); they said ‘love it, take care of it,’ and I said of course, but to prevent more from coming that are not wanted or that can’t be taken care of, you must spay and neuter.”
The education program is just one part of UCAPS’s overall approach to humane animal control in El Dorado and Union County. Other efforts include the trap-neuter-return cat control program, which involves capturing stray cats around the city, spaying or neutering them, then returning them to the area where they were found; transport partnerships with other animal shelters and protection agencies around the country that helps prevents overcrowding at the local shelter; and regular spay-neuter clinics through partnerships with local veterinarians.
Holt said she emphasizes that UCAPS offers vouchers to help offset some of the costs of spaying and neutering animals. A voluntary tax administered by the county goes toward the vouchers, which pay about half the cost of spay/neuter procedures.
“People need to know that UCAPS has vouchers. Most don’t pay the whole vet bill, but they do help; it is expensive,” she said.
Walker said the nonprofit hopes to expand their education program in the future.
“That’s what we’d planned all along was to have children come to the Adoption Center and do the Paw Patrol program,” she said. “That’s something we’d still like to do and that would help us get grants… But it takes volunteers; we need folks.”
During Holt’s visits to the BGCE, she goes over a workbook with children that covers a wide range of topics related to animal care — everything from how to approach a strange dog and recognizing what mood an animal is in to training a pet and keeping it comfortable and healthy.
“I’ve got a little story that we’ll read next time about a dog that started out as a puppy and the family loved and took care of it, but then as it got older, maybe it had used the bathroom on the floor so they chained it up outside and it was cold and just wanted to be inside with its family,” Holt said, adding that the story demonstrates the importance of recognizing a pet as a member of the family. “And one sheet we’ll do in the summer is ‘Too Hot for Spot,’ about during hot weather, leaving the dog at home instead of putting them in the hot car. It’s just, you know, common sense, as to interacting with your dog.”
The goal of the Paw Patrol program, Walker said, is to teach children early how they can be heroes for their pets and other animals in the community. The name of the program is borrowed from the eponymous children’s TV show, where a team of first responder dogs help out their community.
Walker said children, too, can have a lasting impact on our community by learning early how to care for animals.
“We hope it’s helping to slowly change the culture in our community — whether that be about do fighting or spaying and neutering… about not altering your hunting dog because he might not be a good hunter, or keeping a dog outside on a chain. We have to teach them these things and then they go home and talk to their family and question that culture and learn differently, and we’ve got to start somewhere,” she said. “We really want to impact all of the community.”
But the change doesn’t have to be world-altering, Holt noted. Even one child learning more about pet care can make a world of difference for an animal.
“I’m hoping this will carry over to their home, where if their animal is not in a good situation, they can say ‘hey mom, let’s do this’ and change the way they’re doing things,” she said.
To learn more about UCAPS, visit ucapsshelter.org. Call Walker at 918230-4851 to learn about volunteer opportunities.