Video of Minor Beating Dog Prompts PETA Plea for Empathy Lessons in Schools

For Immediate Release:
April 13, 2022

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Following reports that Tulsa Animal Welfare is investigating after a video was recently posted online showing a young girl beating a small dog and slamming the animal onto concrete, TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—has just rushed a letter to Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah A. Gist offering to provide the district with a K–12 kindness-to-animals curriculum and “Empathy Now,” a guide to preventing youth violence against animals. The group is also offering to host free, empathy-building virtual presentations to help prevent future violence.

“When children are taught that animals deserve respect, they learn to be kind to everyone,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is on standby to help schools teach students that violence is wrong, whether the victim is a canine or a classmate.”

TeachKind notes that research shows that 43% of perpetrators of school massacres first committed acts of cruelty against animals, usually dogs or cats—so juvenile animal abusers potentially pose a serious threat to the community at large. TeachKind’s other resources include its free high school social justice curriculum, “Challenging Assumptions,” and its “Share the World” program kit for elementary school students.

TeachKind—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit TeachKind.org or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram.