The Five Freedoms for Animals
are vitally important for the health of all animals
The 5 Freedoms are endorsed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and are available to learners in all 11 official South African languages.
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Click on the buttons below to download the posters in the language of your choice.
Leading Educators suggest that as humans become involved in projects for the restoration of nature, they also heal themselves, and many of the mental health issues that plague society today.
Dr Julie Reddy
Deputy Chair of the South African National Commission for UNESCO​
"If we teach our children at a very young age about care and respect for other… it doesn’t matter who they are or what they are… respect for the diversity that we find ourselves in, we will be a much, much better country and we will learn compassion.” ​
Professor Glen Albrecht
Geoscientist, eco-philosopher and author of
Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World
“To repair and restore this Earth is now the highest good that I can think of.”
He invites everyone to step out of the current Anthropocene era (where human self-interest dominates and destroys) and become part of the Symbiocene era in which all human activity supports all life.
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Professor Karin Murris
Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of Cape Town, and author of
The Posthuman Child. She suggests the focus of education be turned away from Westernised Humanism, towards Posthumanism with its understanding of the
“connectivity and interdependency between all earth dwellers including human animals, other animals and nonhumans (e.g. machines)."
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Professor Kai Horsthemke,
visiting lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Education and author of Animal Rights Education. The current model of Education, he says,
“emotionally desensitizes children to the suffering of animals, reinforcing the prejudice that the value of an animal is dependent on
its usefulness to man.”
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Dr Rainer Ebert, lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Dar es Salaam, and Dr Anteneh Roba, physician and president of the International Fund for Africa, are joint editors of Africa and her Animals, published by the UNISA Press. They state:
“This book is intended as a call upon the reader to take nonhuman animals seriously, as individuals, and as members of our moral community. We want to challenge the common view that animals are essentially inferior to humans.” ​​
Christina Nomdo
DSA Children’s Commissioner for the Western Cape​
“As a society, we are challenged by deep cultural norms that include harmful practices against animals. We need to counter all practices that involve the abuse of animals. So, it is not only about working with children but, in addition, it is about confronting the adults who introduce children to these practices and ‘normalise’ them in the minds of our children. This is the harm.”​​
Andreas Schleicher,
Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He suggests that as AI (artificial intelligence) gradually takes over many of the jobs that keep us busy now, “we should cultivate in our children that special thing that sets us apart from AI, the very thing that makes us uniquely human – our capacity for empathy and creativity.” If we don’t, he says, “the world will be educating second-class robots and not first-class humans”.
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen,
professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and author of the book
The Science of Evil. He suggests that instead of using the term evil, we should talk about reduced or even absent empathy.
“It is puzzling that in school curricula, empathy figures hardly at all… The erosion of empathy is a critical global issue of our time.”
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Dr Magdie van Heerden,
social worker specialising in the Human-Animal bond.
She says: “The development of empathy should be a focal point in education. It starts with the teddy bear in the cot and with the companion animals in our homes. Child welfare and animal welfare are intertwined and we cannot split the one from the other as we strive towards emotional health in our communities.”
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For more info refer to Education Rewired pages 6, 7, 10 & 11
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Please make a contribution to our efforts to raise human consciousness so that the animals in our care can lead healthy lives in accordance with the Five Freedoms for Animals
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For every donation, The Humane Education Trust will issue a Section 18A Tax Certificate for you to hand in to SARS.
