A new programme aimed at introducing youngsters to animal husbandry met with great success when it was launched recently.

Launched by the Department of Environmental Protection's Animal Husbandry clerk, Theresa Minors, the programme involved five middle school children between the ages of 11 and 13. During the three days of the Agricultural Exhibition, they helped feed and care for the animals under the supervision of Ms Minors and others at the Exhibition. "I started the programme to get the kids interested in agriculture and animal husbandry, I wanted them to gain an appreciation for that and for them to know that there is something out there for them to participate in," she explained.

"I sent letters to the schools, all the middle schools, and those were the ones that replied. The response brought Eversley Govia of Spice Valley, Vashti Harvey of Whitney Institute, Thomas Webb of Mount St. Agnes, Nicholas Butterfield (home schooled) and Courtney Morfitt of Bermuda High School for Girls into the programme and around the animals...from guinea pigs to goats to pigs to cows.

"It is a start, but hopefully next year we will be bigger than that," said Ms Minors who pointed out that the five are not necessarily interested in becoming Veterinarians. Nonetheless they enjoyed their experience with the animals.

"They are just basically interested in knowing more about animals," Ms Minors started.

"A lot of kids at this point do not know the importance of our diary farms, poultry farms and the cat fanciers and we're trying to get them involved in that so that they can understand and appreciate it and why we need that on the Island."

Before being exposed to the show animals at the Exhibition, the children had a couple of orientations to educate them on the types of animals they would be coming into contact with.

"One of them was just to let them know what type of animals they were going to be working with," explained Ms Minors.

"In the second orientation they started visiting the dairy farms and learned about milking cows, artificial insemination and we visited a goat farm where they learned about how to hand milk goats, care for them and how the owner picks the goats that he wants.

"They all have an interest in either veterinary work or biology. Biology can cover a lot of things, they can become a regular doctor on the health side of it and they don't have to be interested in the animals but could be interested in milk production. They are a lot of things they can get involved in."

Ms Minors plans to continue working with the children throughout the year and next year add more to the programme. "I do plan on getting a few more kids and hopefully I will get the ones back from this year, too," she stated.

At the Exhibition on the Saturday the youngsters were involved with helping the judges and also got to show goats and cows, with Thomas winning a prize for showing a cow.

"These kids worked very hard, but had a lot of fun," explained Ms Minors who is also hoping to expose them to the animals at the Aquarium.

"They are interested in coming back. They do want to volunteer their time and they want some more hands on.

"They were a good age to work with, though I will consider taking them older than that. They wanted to jump in there and handle everything. They need to be constantly involved over the year because even with the larger animals it is something they need to get used to being around.

"Because they got a chance to work with the goats, cows and pigs, it caught their attention a lot because it is not something they are used to working with."