High School Animal Rights Club Nabs Award for Helping Duck Family

TeachKind, PETA’s Humane Education Division, Recognizes Students and Teacher for Guiding Mother Duck and Her Ducklings to Safety

For Immediate Release:
June 5, 2018

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Hero to Animals Awards are on their way from TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—to the members of Southwest High School’s Animal Rights Club and their teacher Mitchell Johnson for helping to guide a mother duck and her ducklings to safety.

On Tuesday, May 29, Johnson and his students noticed that a mother duck had given birth to six tiny ducklings in a courtyard on campus—and they were trapped. The group used big pieces of cardboard to guide the animal family down eight blocks to Lake Harriet—at some points, even stopping traffic and steering the ducks away from storm drains. After 35 minutes, the group arrived safely at the water’s edge and the babies tentatively jumped into the lake after their mother and swam off together.

“A duck family is safe and sound thanks to the care and compassion of these high-schoolers and their teacher,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Outreach and Campaigns Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is recognizing Southwest’s Animal Rights Club for being superheroes to animals and showing how important it is to help and protect those in need.”

TeachKind—whose mottos read, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—is available to send humane education materials to schools, suggest lesson plans, and even host classroom presentations for students via Skype, all for free.

For more information, please visit TeachKind.org.