While many young people are enjoying their summer vacation basking in the sun by the beach, or riding their bicycles, about a dozen area students have gone back to the classroom.
No, they’re not practising their vocabulary or memorizing multiplication. These students are learning how to care for animals, big and small, at the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Camp Bark.
The camp gives students a chance to learn basic care needs for animals as small as a rabbit, to as large as horses.
Students are also taught proper handling and grooming techiniques.
“We’re not only talking cats and dogs,” said Julie Bourgon, animal care co-ordinator at the OSPCA’s Boundary Road office. “There’s also farm animals, reptiles and some other small-breed animals.”
About a dozen students will take part in the camp, over two weeks this month and next. The classes are broken into two groups, ages 6-9 in one, and 10-13 in the other.
“I’ve had some kids coming since they were 6,” said Bourgon. “So they’re really showing an interest in working with animals later on in life.”
The program has become so popular that a March Break edition has been added. All of the summer programs have already filled up.
