One of the main aims of Les Amis Des Chats is to improve the understanding about cat welfare for the next generation of cat owners as well as those who already have the responsibility of ownership.
Les Amis Des Chats provides advice and information on cat healthcare and responsible pet ownership, neutering and humane control of stray cats.
For children
Kevin the Kat
Les Amis Des Chats continues to develop its education programme for children and schools because this fulfils several purposes. Education in schools will raise awareness and that is an invaluable long term way to change community attitudes and promote community involvement - these children will soon grow up and may be running their local community and have influence in local policies, or they may be future cat owners. In the short term, children will talk to their parents about what they are doing in school and the message will spread. In addition, education helps to dispel myths and traditionally held views about cats.
The children's page is specially designed to help children aged seven to 11 learning English. This section includes cat-related activities that are fun and creative to do while learning another language as well as beutifully illustrated worksheets. These pages are downloadable.
Click here to visit the KIDS CATS FUN zone.
Kevin the Kat, a Les Amis Des Chats character designed to bring some fun into learning, hosts the page. He has his own stories for children.
And it’s Kevin the Kat that presents the charity’s educational DVD entitled Kevin the Kat : Anglais avec les chats. The DVD includes 3 lessons about cat welfare as a tool to teach English to children aged seven to 11 years. The format of a DVD was chosen in order to reach the maximum of children, using a popular and accessible method.
- The lessons include:
- Cat body parts and colours
- Understanding and compassion towards cats
- A healthy cat and its environment
- Awareness of the needs of cats
- Cat population control
- Neutering and responsibilities of cat ownership
The lessons include student evaluation tests.
The lessons in English use a level of English language already achieved by primary school students and are a means of revisiting and expanding language skills previously acquired using a completely different, novel and interesting subject matter. There is also a completely separate version in French, which could be used by any teacher to provide cat welfare education to students.
The DVD has been created in collaboration with the audiovisual association CMBL Productions. We greatly appreciate the sponsorship provided by the bank Credit Agricole Nord Midi-Pyreneees for this project. The DVD has been sent to 164 schools in Tarn et Garonne and other municipalities where the association has permission under a byelaw to run stray cat sterilisation programmes. In order to reach a wider audience, our DVD is now featured as a YouTube video. Watch lessons 1, 2 and 3 below:
Comments received about the Les amis des chats educational DVD "Votre DVD est ... un excellent outil pédagogique, éducatif et ludique et nous espérons qu'il sera largement diffusé." A Alessandri, Administratrice Générale, Fondation Assistance aux Animaux:
The DVD is free - to ask for more information click here.
FOR MEMBERS, PET OWNERS & VILLAGE RESIDENTS
Les amis des chats has produced a spot film to highlight the importance of neutering cats. There are still too many unsterilised cats producing unwanted kittens who are often abandoned or worse - drowned or shot.
The film was created by Léa Fabreguettes. Many thanks to sponsors Shuman Animal Welfare Trust, Credit Agricole, and Fonds Nora and Quercimages for showing the film.
Les amis des chats publishes a regular newsletter Langue des chats, often including a feature written by a veterinarian about how to care for your cat. The newsletter is also downloadable from the Les amis des chats website.
Fact sheets (PDF files) are downloadable from the Cat Health section for specific issues. These are regularly updated.
Information booths visit many of the markets in the area to offer information and publicise the work the charity undertakes to help cats. The more people that know the objectives and understand how the charity can help, increases the number of people who will provide a more caring environment for cats.
Inhabitants of Tarn et Garonne, Lot and Lot et Garonne in which the association has permission to work are informed of the charity’s actions to help cats. Articles about the trap-neuter-return humane population control of stray cats, distribution of neutering vouchers for cat owners, and eduction programme are regularly featured in newletters published by local councils, local French newspapers and anglophone publications.