Can animals help students better manage their own feelings? The leader of one popular Florida field trip destination says yes.
The Alaqua Animal Refuge, which stretches across 100 acres in Florida’s panhandle, is home to more than 350 rescue (and adoptable) animals—dogs, cats, horses and other farm animals, birds, tortoises, and more. As part of its educational program, Humane Heroes, the refuge hosts field trips for local schools and youth groups. Last year, 2,200 students visited the animal sanctuary, and this year, Alaqua is on track to host more than 4,000.
“Initially, we just wanted to create a program where the kids could know that they could help animals,” said Laurie Hood, the refuge’s founder and president. “It was clear that there was something deeper happening. So many animals have been survivors of neglect or abuse—learning to empathize with animals, the kids were starting to reflect on their own issues. It became about helping kids grow into more compassionate and emotionally aware people.”
The animals help children make connections to their own emotions and experiences, Hood said. There’s a therapeutic element to the field trips—which is especially important now, amid an ongoing youth mental health crisis. A body of research has found that interacting with animals can reduce stress and anxiety, and a growing number of schools have even brought in therapy dogs to help provide support and comfort.
At the refuge, for instance, elementary students have responded well to the “Bully in the Barn” lesson. Employees take the children to the barnyard and put food out for the horses and donkeys. In every herd, there will be one horse who always pushes his way to the front to eat first, fighting the others in the group.
He’s the bully, Hood said. And the children immediately pick up on the dynamic and begin to draw connections to their own lives. That can open the door to conversations about what to do if you’re bullied, Hood said, and sometimes, she notices teachers making a mental note to follow up with certain students later on.
Sometimes, visiting students draw meaningful connections to the animals’ backstories and their own, Hood said. Many are inspired by the rescue animals, who are making strides to trust humans again despite past abuse or neglect.
“When the children meet the animals and hear about what they’ve been through, they realize that no matter what’s happened in your past, you can always move forward with it,” she said.
Hood remembers taking one group of high schoolers through the refuge and introducing them to dogs who had been rescued from dog-fighting rings. The dogs may look mean, she said, but they are “the sweetest dogs ever.” As she was explaining the dogs’ background, Hood noticed one student who had been quiet the whole trip, standing with his arms crossed.
One dog, Aries, came out and beelined to the boy, leaning against him. “You could see something go off in his head—he was shocked and surprised and didn’t know what to do,” Hood recalled. “He ended up just putting his hands on [Aries], and he just stayed there for the whole lesson.”
“But the fact that [Aries] chose him—I mean, you could just feel the chills going through your body, because he was the one who needed it the most,” Hood continued. “The teacher told us later on that he had experienced some great loss in his family. ... He had been pretty shut down.”
A visit to the animal refuge can lead to long-term interest
These field trips can also spark students’ interest in conservation or animal welfare.
“We try to educate them—if this is a passion of theirs, or something that’s really stuck to their heart, they can go and do different careers in animal welfare,” Hood said. “It doesn’t have to be just running a shelter. You can be a lobbyist or an attorney or a veterinarian.”
Sometimes, teachers will follow up and ask for additional resources or ways to stay involved.
Last year, Hood introduced one group of high school leadership students to dogs rescued from a hoarding situation. The students asked what happened to the person who did this, and Hood explained that the refuge’s role is to take in the animals and provide law enforcement with enough information to prove that the animals were neglected and abused. But sometimes, she said, the laws aren’t strong enough to put people in jail.
The teacher of the leadership class later reached out to share that students came back from the field trip interested to learn more about the laws on animal abuse. At the time, Hood was working to lobby Florida lawmakers to pass a bill that would strengthen penalties for animal abusers. She invited the class to join her on a trip to the state capitol in Tallahassee to speak to lawmakers about the bill.
The students did all the talking, Hood recalled: “They knew the stats, they knew what was wrong, they knew why [the law] needed to be changed.”
The bill, which also created the state’s first animal abuser database, passed the state legislature unanimously, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law in May.
“I just can’t imagine how empowered those children felt,” Hood said. “They were a Humane Hero. That’s the reason we named the program that—they actually helped in making the world better for animals.”
Hood hopes to eventually expand the Alaqua Animal Refuge to include more native wild animals, which were born in zoos or taken from captivity, as well as add rehabilitation services for Florida black bears.
“We’re hoping to create a whole new movement of young conservationists that understand how important the land is and how important it is to preserve that, so we’ll have a wild Florida for their families and their grandchildren moving forward,” she said. “If we don’t do something now, it’s going to go away.”
