Humane Education is a field focusing on the health and wellbeing of humans, other animals, and the natural world by way of centering empathy building, connections with nature, and compassion. Historically, the philosophy was largely applied in education around the respectful and loving care of companion animals in shelters – and has over time evolved to embody wider ideas about living gently, compassionately, and in unity with all other beings and the Earth.
While humane education is still widely applicable in schools and this is a common route for reaching youth and increasing public engagement around these concepts, humane teachings can be incorporated into myriad settings – including in sanctuaries and rescues, corporate environments, interagency (governmental and nongovernmental) meetings, and beyond. The opportunities for integrating humane education into our societal structures are endless and, thus, it is important to consider context when developing curricula and planning out various means of facilitation. In this vein, there are boundless possible pathways to reaching minds and hearts across all contexts, transcending barriers of age, culture, religion, professional and socio-economic background, and geography.
Humane Education can take so many different forms – from centering on the specific needs of companion animals, wildlife or farmed animals; to focusing on foundations of compassion and kindness in schools; to supporting adults in creating emotionally healthy home environments; to leadership training for thriving communities; to educating the public about gentle living from the micro to the macro scale; to encouraging professional-level compassionate action in those interested in rescue and caregiving, policy work, volunteering, or contributing to change in limitless other ways.
Because of the wide applicability and intrinsic permeability of the philosophies behind humane education, much of this work is underpinned by systems thinking. By interrupting cycles of violence and apathy, it is possible to teach empathy and forge new cycles rooted in self-awareness and compassion. This has the potential to result, over time, in societies built on kindness and a sense of kinship toward other beings – allowing for multispecies communities that embody reciprocal care, healing, and ultimately mutual thriving. From here, our systems can be reimagined and recreated.
One of our central means of facilitating humane education through the Cactus Shelter has been through our school field trips to the shelter’s educational center. Local students visit our campus and interact with some of our rescued animals, learning about the difficult pasts many of them have endured while gaining an understanding of the critical societal imperative to treat animals with kindness and respect.
Additionally, Cactus Shelter staff take our wonderful ambassador animals along with them on school visits, where they teach humane education sessions which are founded on therapeutic and perspective-enhancing Animal-Assisted-Interactions. The outcome is multilayered: children learn how to interact lovingly and respectfully with other animals while receiving opportunities to think about the subjectivity of individual animals, probing the development of perspective-taking, empathy, respect, and compassionate action.
As part of the Global Empathy Project’s expansion, we look forward to the upcoming construction of our new Lusaka campus and educational center, Leopard’s Hill. Here, we will have the capacity to house even more rescued companion animals and provide increased humane education workshops for students and adults alike. Through facilitating humane education in the forms of comprehensive workshop series for the public, ongoing extracurricular sessions for students, and special presentations for various organizations and groups, we are excited to take an even more nature-centered approach. At Leopard’s Hill, the surrounding natural environment will be integrated into every aspect of our programs – from the animals’ care to the implementation of our lessons and beyond. Through fostering positive human-animal-environment experiences in our educational programs, we will easily foreground notions like kinship, animal agency and autonomy, and the importance of creating just, multispecies communities. We will explore means of nurturing healthy and care-based interspecies interactions alongside creatively working together toward concretizing community-led projects aimed at building compassionate, flourishing systems.
As you’ve learned here, there are infinite learning possibilities and thereby just as many opportunities to weave humane education philosophy into our lives – whether you are a practitioner or teacher, a student, an animal advocacy professional, or a member of the public! You can volunteer; share the knowledge you gain from your own learnings on social media or a blog; start a community project; actively integrate these ideals into your school, work or personal community; and even put your ethics into practice by simply living a gentler, kinder life and leading others by example.
Stay Tuned!
