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Explaining to children about neutering/spaying

Crunchie

Warren Veteran
I did an animal workshop today which was booked at rather short notice. Anyway I had the bunnies with me and the kids were between 6-12 so I went through my usual speel about giving them loads of room, lots of hay and also that it's a good idea to neuter and spay the rabbits.

The way I put the last fact across was as follows...

Lots of people take their dog or cat to the vet for a wee operation that stops them from having babies and it's a good idea to do this for a rabbit too. A girl bunny can get ill if she doesn't have the operation and both girl and boy bunnies can be very naughty before they have it as well. There's also lots of bunnies all over Scotland that don't have homes so there are too many pet rabbits in the country just now.

That was about as child friendly as I could make it but I got a complaint from a parent afterwards saying I was too preachy and the workshop wasn't meant to be a sex-ed class. I simply said that I would try and make the show a bit more friendly in future but to be honest I'm struggling to come up with a better way of explaining it. I don't really want to leave the info on neutering and spaying out of the presentation given it was a "Looking after Pets" show and I feel it's important. No one else has complained and I've had more than one person proof read my scripts.:? Don't get me wrong if it was nursery aged kids I wouldn't go into as much detail and the stuff I trot out is more in the hope an adult in the room will take note.

Has she got a point or did I maybe just touch a raw nerve?
 
I guess it's maybe the last sentence that comes across as a little preachy, not in a terrible way it's a good point to make. For young children though it might make more sense if it was about how things effect them. The idea of too many rabbits verses homes maybe goes straight over their head.6-12 is quite a bit age range developmentally so I can see why it's difficult to get it perfect for everyone.

You could maybe say that if you had a boy bunny and a girl bunny they would have x babies a year, which sounds like fun but where would you put them all? You'd have bunnies in the living room, and bunnies in the kitchen, and bunnies in the bathroom, and bunnies in the bedroom and there would be no room to move! You could also compare it to the number of children in the room. That will make more sense to young kids than big numbers they don't get the concept of yet.

Getting an operation to stop you being naughty might not be the best concept to try and explain to kids ;) :lol:

Do you send them home with anything in writing, if you have captive adults there then written info on neutering might let you target the adults at the same time but with the info that will be a bit advanced for the younger children.
 
I guess it's maybe the last sentence that comes across as a little preachy, not in a terrible way it's a good point to make. For young children though it might make more sense if it was about how things effect them. The idea of too many rabbits verses homes maybe goes straight over their head.6-12 is quite a bit age range developmentally so I can see why it's difficult to get it perfect for everyone.

Normally the shows for a smaller age range but this was an out of school club so the kids are all different ages. It is difficult to pitch the info at a level the younger ones can understand while not being completely boring for the older ones.

You could maybe say that if you had a boy bunny and a girl bunny they would have x babies a year, which sounds like fun but where would you put them all? You'd have bunnies in the living room, and bunnies in the kitchen, and bunnies in the bathroom, and bunnies in the bedroom and there would be no room to move! You could also compare it to the number of children in the room. That will make more sense to young kids than big numbers they don't get the concept of yet.

That's a good idea and one I'll use in the future but the flip side is of course that there will no doubt be a few folk in the room that keep single rabbits so they'll maybe assume neutering/spaying to prevent pregnancy doesn't apply to them.

Getting an operation to stop you being naughty might not be the best concept to try and explain to kids ;) :lol:

I dunno, an operation to stop weans being a pain in the bahooky might not be a bad idea.:lol:

Do you send them home with anything in writing, if you have captive adults there then written info on neutering might let you target the adults at the same time but with the info that will be a bit advanced for the younger children.

I don't really have anything to give out as I'm unsure where I'd get leaflets on things like that (if they exist) and I'd be worried about writing my own material in case it wasn't completely accurate.
 
If you work with the public you must know that there is ALWAYS someone who will find something to complain about. You can't please them all - if you left out the neutering info in future, inevitably someone would complain that you're ignoring an important part of pet care!


I think Tamsin's suggestions are good :) But definitely don't cut out the whole section just because of one complaint, you can run yoruself ragged trying to please all the people all the time!
 
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