SOFIA - Forest Hill High School Envirothon 2002

Prevention of Pet Abandonment Through Education

Objective: In order to prevent the ever-increasing numbers of pets that are abandoned, our goal is to educate potential pet owners of an animal's emotional and physical needs so that they are fully prepared for the responsibilities, which accompany the privilege.

Issue Selection: When our project first began last year, we turned to our community and found an increasing rate of pet abandonment. Determined to prevent this occurrence, our team chose this issue as our action project.

Overview: Last year our project included creating a brochure and coloring book to distribute throughout the community. This year, in hopes of reaching more people, we created a website demonstrating our project, goals, and information. Another way we decided to make an impact was to create and present an educational program to elementary school students, with the goal of a more receptive audience being fully aware of the responsibilities of pet ownership.

Results/Outcome: We have found our project has taken on a life of its own this year, developing into a website which is accessible to an entire world. In addition to our modern technological advances, we found that while visiting elementary schools, our information and message was well received. The children went home with a coloring book filled with information of commonly abandoned pets to share with others.

Evaluation: We plan to evaluate the effectiveness of our outreach program by including a response section on our website, where viewers can email us with any questions or comments. In addition, we will keep track of how many "hits" our website receives.

Future Directions: We plan to continue our educational presentations throughout the school year, by visiting additional elementary schools. We would also like to reach audiences of more ages by giving presentations at the local zoo.

Team Falcon Team Members:

Prevention of Pet Abandonment Through Education