NEWS
ACRES IN THE NEWS
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TODAY Online
5 September 2008
Youth step up for the animals
Eight groups get first seed-funding-ever for animal welfare initiatives
By Ong Dai Lin
ONE group of Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) students wants to hold a week-long carnival to raise awareness — complete with “cruelty-free” vegetarian food and a petition to ban foie gras.
Another team from Admiralty Secondary School plans to produce a documentary about animal welfare, which they hope will be shown in other schools and even incorporated into the Civics and Moral Education curriculum.
These young people don't just love animals but are also out to persuade their peers to respect their fellow creatures. The students are among the eight groups that yesterday received the inaugural Animal Protectors Grant.
The grant is Singapore 's first to provide seed funding specially for animal welfare initiatives. It is managed by The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), NTU Animal Lovers Society, NUS Students' Animal Welfare Group, and People for Animal Welfare at SMU.
The groups will each get sums ranging from $915 to $1,350, sponsored by the Lee Foundation which has been supporting Acres since 2001.
Significantly, 32 of the 34 participants are youth.
Raffles Institution studentKevin Brandy Budiman — who with his schoolmates want to reach out through storybooks that tell of the selling of turtle eggs and abuse of primates in lab experiments — said they had surveyed some 30 people.
“Most of them say a storybook is an interesting way to educate children. And we believe by educating children, it will be more efficient; they will have the foundation to love animals.”
Calling the groups' proposals “active citizenry at its best”, Acres executive director Louis Ng said: “We had the first Singapore Animal WelfareSymposium this year and we don'twant the public to just learn aboutanimal welfare. We want them to takeaction.”
Two groups focused on the issue of the illegal wildlife trade. One proposes putting up posters in pet shops, identifying animals that are often bought and sold in shops, and the penalties involved. Students from Raffles Girls' School have pledged to fight the exotic pet trade by holding roadshows.
The groups will present the results of their projects next May, at the second Singapore Animal WelfareSymposium.
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