Supporting the next generation of compassionate pet owners
The Pet Education Partnership (PEP) and Vet Sustain have designed a new resource to support animal welfare education in classrooms - here's why it matters and how veterinary professionals can help
Laura Higham, Vet Sustain
The Pet Education Partnership (PEP), a collaboration between eight of the leading animal welfare charities in the UK, and Vet Sustain have announced an exciting new collaboration to equip veterinary professionals with engaging, ready-to-deliver school sessions designed to inspire children to care for pets responsibly and sustainably. In this blog, Vet Sustain Director Laura Higham explains how the partnership came about, and how the resource helps to fill an unmet need to reach young children with trusted information about caring for pets and the planet.
As veterinary professionals, many of us will have been invited to talk to children about our work at the forefront of animal healthcare. Showcasing our unique and diverse roles can spark career aspirations and classroom conversions spanning almost all sections of the primary school curriculum. Crucially, these sessions can also foster compassion and empathy in children, and help them as the next generation of animal owners to meet their animals’ welfare needs.
Welfare foundations
Research shows that human empathy is shaped in part by our genetics, but mostly by our early life experience and social factors. The RSPCA’s Animal Kindness Index Report highlights how children who regularly engage with animals are more likely to show kindness and empathy towards both animals and people. Other studies indicate that animal care can support social competencies and emotional regulation. It’s clear that engaging with animals as children has mutual benefits for people and animals alike.
However, results from PEP’s Children and Pets Survey 2025 reveal varying levels of knowledge about caring for pets amongst the children surveyed. Teaching animal welfare to primary school children can bridge this knowledge gap, helping them to develop positive attitudes towards animals and influencing their belief that animals are sentient. The impact of such interventions has been evidenced by Scottish SPCA and University of Edinburgh, and animal welfare education in schools is widely supported by the British public.
Vet trust
It’s well known that veterinary surgeons are amongst the most trusted professionals in the UK, and this sentiment is echoed by children too. PEP’s children’s survey found that vets are by far their most trusted source of information about pets, being most trusted by 53% of those surveyed. As role models and trusted professionals, just half an hour in a classroom could shape the attitudes and behaviours of 20 or 30 children to take through into adulthood.
Pets and sustainability
Improving animal welfare is just one of the positive outcomes that can arise from animal education provision in schools. In a society with a declining connection to nature, our contact with pets and other domestic species may be our only regular contact-point with the ‘more-than-human’ world, and a key motivation for getting out in nature.
Leading voice on nature connectedness Professor Miles Richardson and his team recently published a study showing a decline in people’s connection with nature by more than 60% since 1800. They describe an ‘extinction of experience’ in the natural world due to urbanisation, loss of wildlife in neighbourhoods, and parents no longer passing on engagement with nature to their children. Another study found that people in Sheffield (my home town) spend an average of only seven minutes and 15 seconds in natural spaces daily.
These findings point to an opportunity to engage children in conversations about how pets offer a gateway to exploring the natural world, for the benefit of both pets and people. In turn, we can also talk about how responsible pet care considers the environment and wildlife, with actions such as keeping dogs on leads in wildlife-sensitive areas, putting bells on cats and keeping them in at night to reduce wildlife predation, and reusing paper and cardboard to build play tunnels for small mammals.
A new collaboration
Knowing how much children can benefit from animal welfare education, I boldly agreed to speak to my daughter’s Reception class on the topic. With a mandate to entertain 30 four-year-olds for half an hour, I searched for an off-the-peg resource to help guide them through the ‘five freedoms’ and other relatable animal welfare concepts - but to no avail. It was with a slight sense of panic that I walked into that unfamiliar habitat of a primary school classroom, armed with my own badly-concocted lesson plan.
More recently, I was delighted to discover the incredible work of the Pet Education Partnership. With the PEP team, we identified an opportunity to fill the gap for a school resource for veterinary professionals on animal welfare, incorporating some much-needed additional content on environmentally-friendly pet ownership.
Free resource
The PEP-Vet Sustain is a free-to-download resource, now available from both organisations’ websites. It features modifiable sections allowing veterinary facilitators to adapt and personalise the resource for their work and local context, and several example cases for children to think through. It describes Vet Sustain’s simple ‘6Ws’ of veterinary sustainability, and an excellent case study written by veterinary nurse Rachael Honeyman about the sustainability endeavors at Ark Vets in Sheffield.
We look forward to hearing feedback following use of this resource, and hope it will spark curiosity and compassion for people, pets, and the planet.
About PEP
The Pet Education Partnership (PEP) is dedicated to promoting the benefits of responsible pet ownership and fostering positive relationships between children and animals through education, research and outreach. The partnership brings together eight of the UK’s leading animal welfare charities: PDSA, RSPCA, Blue Cross, Dogs Trust, Cats Protection, Woodgreen, SSPCA and USPCA.