Mexican children build houses for stray dogs with recycled materials

By setting examples of humanity and empathy, children often become protagonists of moving movements. And the story that will be told in today’s post is no exception. At the primary school at the Instituto Educacional de Zacatecas, Mexico, 35 children mobilized to build kennels for stray dogs, recycling materials they had at home. This initiative went viral on social media and everyone wants to know how the idea came about.

O awesome.club wants to share with you the extraordinary project of these children and tell you how they managed to make it possible.

As a course completion project, the children in the fifth grade of primary created a project with the aim of generating some impact on society. With the teacher’s help, they identified a problem on the streets of the city (and which, unfortunately, is repeated all over the world): many dogs living on the streets. For this reason, they decided to build shelters that could serve as safe houses against the cold or rain for these abandoned animals.

The project also had another objective: to encourage the use of materials that, if not used in construction, would end up in the trash, thus promoting a culture of recycling. This is how the students built the shelters with materials that, in principle, would be thrown away, such as pieces of wood, old blades, plastic cans, Styrofoam, cardboard and fabrics, among others. Best of all, the students used their imaginations to color and decorate the shelters to make them welcoming to stray animals.

From the beginning, the students knew that the project had to have a clear purpose. So, after presenting the little houses made with recycled materials, they donated them to the shelter dog tiesa non-profit organization responsible for rescuing and finding families to adopt stray animals in the municipalities of Zacatecas, Guadalupe, Enrique Estrada and Calera, Mexico.

The abandonment of animals has serious consequences for cities and can become a public health problem. According to the veterinary products division of the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, 70% of the canine population in Mexico is on the streets. This is an alarming number because it involves many environmental and health complications.

Fortunately, there are more and more spaces dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and responsible adoption of abandoned dogs. Rescuers do selfless work to promote awareness of welcoming pets into the home. Recommendations are generally as follows:

Don’t buy a pet. Adopt! Try to neuter your pet. If, later on, you want to have two four-legged friends instead of one, there is always the possibility of adopting another one. A pet is a living being: consider time, dedication, habits, your finances and your availability before taking responsibility for a life.

What did you think of these children’s initiative? How do you think you could combat irresponsible pet abandonment?