RSPCA School Holiday Program : A Behind The Scenes Look at the Animal Shelter

As urban dwellers, my children’s interactions with animals are vastly different to that which I experienced growing up in the country. Other than the birds and dog we have at home, they have limited experience with animals and find all the things that I found laborious as a kid, a novelty. They have never watched a mammal give birth. They’ve never experienced the death of much-loved pet. But what they do have in common with me is a passion for learning more about animals. When I heard about the RSPCA School Holiday program a few months back I stalked their site for release dates so I could secure them a place. In the end, Miss N went along with her cousin Miss M.

Like most school holiday programs, the parents drop their children off at the event, leave and then return to pick them up some time later. Miss N has provided me with a recount of her adventure to share with you. Happy reading!

When we first arrived at the RSCPA we went into the education room where Scott taught us how to treat animals correctly. He showed us some pictures of dogs, cats, birds and rabbits. They were really cute. Scott talked us about the importance of water and food. We’re lucky that we always make sure our animals have enough food and water.

It was then time to do the inspector job. The RSCPA inspector’s job is really important. They investigate complaints against all types of animals. When we visited, the inspectors had rescued over 100 ferrets that were in the one house. Can you imagine that! The group and I met a real RSPCA inspector and we had the chance to ask him questions about his job. He then showed us a bunch of inspector tools and we had a go at each of them (on stuffed animals rather than real animals).

Chickens are hard to catch if the area is big. The RSPCA inspector will often use a big bet. We had a go at this. The first step is to fold it in three places. You then throw it up over the chickens and it spreads out over them and catches them. It was super easy to catch the stuffed chicken as it stayed in the one place. 

Sometimes the RSPCA inspector needs to crawl inside tight spaces to rescue animals. We each had a turn of seeing what this might be like but crawling through a long tunnel and saving the dog at the end. To make sure we did it safely, we wore a helmet. Of course the dog that we saved was a stuffed toy too!

My favourite inspector activity was sack kittens from inside a wall. We had to use a special little camera which we fed into the wall to see where they were. Once the camera located the kittens, we were able to reach inside with out arm and rescue them. The camera does a great job!

After meeting the RSPCA Inspector and trying a few of his jobs out for ourselves, we headed back to the education room to watch another clip and talk about what we had learned. Soon it was time to move to the RSPCA clinic where we watched the vets do some operations on cats, rabbits and dogs. We didn’t see any big surgeries but we did see desexing (which is really important), stitches being removed and vaccinations. I think I might be a vet one day. They do a good job looking after animals.

The post-operation room was our next stop and we visited the area that the cats stay. Many had cones on their heads so they wouldn’t touch their stitches or wounds. We talked to the vet nurses and found out how they record all the animals individual information.

Did you know that dogs like being read to? After leaving the cats we each grabbed a book and read to the dogs until lunchtime. They were actually quite interested in the books we read and listened to the whole story.

After lunch my team were led to the chicken coop. We had to take out all the old hay from the coop and use the wheelbarrow to get ned hay. After we cleaned all the poop out we then replaced the food and water. Whilst this wasn’t my favourite job, I know that it’s important to look after your animals and clean them when their area is dirty. Who wants to live in a stinky area?

Our next activity was to make a toy for one of the animals. I made two. One for a dog and one for a cat. The dog toy was quite simple, and because they think with their tummies, involved food. I filled the centre with kibble. For my cat, I decorated a toilet roll on a string. 

Our last activity for the day was drawing a picture for the RSPCA art wall. We didn’t have a lot of time for this activity as they day was almost over. I was so excited when I saw mum arrive to pick me up so I could show her the toy I made for the kittens and the certificate I received from Scott. It was a really fun day. 

The RSPCA School Holiday program occurs most school holiday breaks with sessions held at the Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Shelters and RSPCA Care Centre Tuggerah. Full day sessions are currently charged at $80.00 per child. The program caters for children 8-14 years of age. For full details, head to the RSPCA School Holiday Program Page.