A group of 1st and 2nd year students in Davis College have progressed to the semi-final stage of the Eco UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards with their initiative ‘A Sustainable Life With My Canine Friend. The group have been busy working on many different projects as part of the initiative. In February, the group introduced an Animal Welfare Week which is now to be an annual event in the school. This year’s theme was on preventing puppy farming which is the practice of the forced, institutionalised breeding of dogs for profit. To that end, the ECO-UNESCO junior group organised a petition, a non-uniform day and a cake sale/raffle, with all proceeds going to Dog’s Trust Ireland.
The group have also linked in with Mallow Tidy Towns with whom they have discussed the issue of dog fouling. The group had identified this as an issue and discovered there are there are only three dog fouling bins in Mallow. This is a particular issue for wheelchair users, parents with prams, children and the elderly. Dog fouling is also quite toxic to small animals and plants. The group will continue working with Mallow Tidy Towns to identify ways to tackle this issue, and would welcome suggestions from the public.
The group is very grateful for all the support they have received to date and would ask you to share our video on YouTube and keep up to date with our Facebook page (A Sustainable Life With My Canine Friend).