Children Receive Mixed Messages

Old MacDonald had a farm, ei, ei, o. And on his farm he had some pigs, ei, ei, o. With and oink-oink here and an oink-oink there, here an oink, there an oink, everywhere and oink-oink. Old MacDonald had a farm, ei, ei, o.

The song Old MacDonald is on virtually in every children’s farm book or musical toy imaginable.  And why not, it’s catchy and teaches children about farm animals.  Old MacDonald’s farm has evolved over time and activist groups are wasting no time in targeting children with inaccurate information.  Whether it be a flash animation movie dedicated to fighting “factory farms” to educational materials claiming that people have no right to harvest animals for food, it needed to be determined the effect this was having on youth today.

Four focus groups were held in Des Moines, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Raleigh, N.C., comprised of 10 children in each group, ages nine to 14.  An online survey of 350 children in this age bracket was also conducted.  Youth were asked about their familiarity with Web sites like petakids.com and The Meatrix (one of the Internet’s most popular animated advocacy films), along with their views on vegetarianism and animal care.

More than half of all youth surveyed have heard of “animal rights” organizations. Among those who have heard of these organizations, nearly one-fourth reported the organizations themselves have impacted their meat eating habits. I realize that these are not statistically significant samples but we had to start somewhere. 

So what’s next?  Don’t be surprised if you see us on YouTube or other social networking Web sites.   Bottom line - children are smart and they know right from wrong.

- Teresa Roof