humane education

Why the Cycle of Animal Abuse Is Not Only Bad for Animals, It’s Bad for Us

Zoe Weil is a blogger for Psychology Today, and we share her blog posts here. Let the pandemic be our wake-up call: if ever there was a time to transform our relationship with animals, it’s now. While the origin of COVID-19 remains uncertain, one of the likely theories is that it originated in a wet market in…

Read more »
karen patterson

I Am a Humane Educator: Karen Patterson

IHE M.Ed. graduate Karen Patterson works as the director of humane education for the Humane Society of Huron Valley in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she built their humane education program from scratch. Karen spent 10 years as an elementary classroom teacher, where she incorporated humane education into her classroom lessons and activities. She and her…

Read more »
sea lions

Building Empathy and Critical Thinking: A Lesson About Animals

by Zoe Weil A few years ago at our Summer Residency for educators at the Institute for Humane Education, teacher and IHE grad Betsy Messenger created a lesson on animal issues that was so effective and powerful, I wanted to share it with you. She gathered our group outside and “borrowed” my dogs, whose only…

Read more »
Resources: Who Am I?

Who Am I?

Many people know that pigs root around in the ground, that cows have four stomachs, and that chickens have wings, but some of these beings also make friends, remember faces, can play video games, and other characteristics that people often attribute only to humans. This activity for grades 2-5 serves as a great introduction to…

Read more »